One touch and I was a believer (every kiss it gets a little sweeter)
by bechloehuh
Summary: "I wonder how many there are." Chloe says, pointing up with her finger. She starts to count, moving her finger every time she does, and Beca smiles as she watches her. It's impossible to count every star in the sky, but obviously Chloe tries. It's such a Chloe thing to do. (high school au one-shot)


**One touch and I was a believer (every kiss it gets a little sweeter)**

 **Summary:** "I wonder how many there are." Chloe says, pointing up with her finger. She starts to count, moving her finger every time she does, and Beca smiles as she watches her. It's impossible to count every star in the sky, but obviously Chloe tries. It's such a Chloe thing to do. (high school au one-shot)

 **Words:** 36k

 **Content Warning:** Underage drinking

 **Rating:** T mostly for swearing and implied sexy times

* * *

" _One touch and I was a believer / every kiss it gets a little sweeter / it's getting better / keeps getting better all the time, girl / they don't know about the things we do / they don't know about the I love you's / but I bet you if they only knew / they would just be jealous of us / they don't know about the up all nights / they don't know I've waited all my life / just to find a love that feels this right / baby they don't know about, they don't know about us / they don't know how special you are / they don't know what you've done to my heart / they can say anything they want / 'cause they don't know us / they don't know what we do best / it's between me and you, our little secret / but I wanna tell 'em / I wanna tell the world that you're mine, girl._ "  
– they don't know about us, one direction

* * *

Beca doesn't really know how she found herself here.

Well, no she _does_ , actually.

She knows that some spotty, gap-toothed Government & Politics kid with glasses and a _really_ bad haircut – the type that's shaved at the bottom and sides, and really long at the top, and falls over your eyes and honestly dude, _how the fuck do you even see?_ – had made a comment about her converse ("how do you even walk in them? They're more holey than God himself") and of course, because Beca Mitchell doesn't take anyone's shit, she had punched him; a swift left hook to the jaw that she's pretty sure knocked a few of his teeth out.

Or maybe it didn't, maybe she just likes to think that; maybe it will make her feel better about being in detention.

She doesn't know how she found herself _here_ , though.

In the middle of said Politics nerd – _why_ they had given him detention as well she'll never know, but she's not about to question it ("public school," she had muttered when she saw him laid back on his chair with one leg propped up on the desk, still holding an icepack to his jaw) – and an Asian girl with long hair who keeps combing her bangs with a bright pink comb, who had made a comment when Beca was told to sit down next to her about how she's Asian Jesus.

She didn't quite know what to say to that, so she just nodded, cursing whatever higher power (maybe Asian Jesus) for putting her here.

She's reading her dad's battered down copy of _The Reprieve_ – and she should have probably read _The Age of Reason_ before this, but she picked it up randomly yesterday morning, and she's never really liked Sartre anyway – when she looks up at the clock on the wall to see that it's only been four minutes, which is _perfect_. Only another fifty six to go.

And okay, maybe it's not so bad.

She gets to miss her after school English class (they're learning about Shakespeare, yay!) which she's 97% certain will be about as helpful as _algebra_ in the real world.

Don't get her wrong, she loves English (her dad is an English teacher, for God's sake, it's kind of mandatory.) She'd just rather not learn about the same plays over and over and _over_ again. Seriously, _everybody_ knows who Shakespeare is. Everyone with eyes has read Romeo  & Juliet. Even people _without_ eyes have probably listened to an audio version of it, or listened to the millions of movies they've released of it.

So while she loves English, she can't _stand_ Romeo  & Juliet, ("O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" More like, "O Juliet, Juliet, stop being fucking naïve, he's a stupid kid, he's not worth it.")

She kind of prefers Philosophy, anyway. She reads Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Heidegger for fun, which is about as cool as attending the same school that her father teaches at.

Which is not cool. Not cool at all.

When she texted her dad that she wouldn't be turning up for his English class at three, she could practically _feel_ the disappointment when he didn't text her back. (Probably because he doesn't actually know _how_ to text, but still.)

So while she's very tempted, a number of times, to punch the kid again for teasing her for reading Sartre ( _which_ , he can't even pronounce, _by the way_ ), she's not sure that being "the girl who picks fights with everyone" is a good title to own on her second week at Barden. And while it _is_ kind of unusual that her detention is running over her supposed learning time, voluntary or not, she's not about to question the authorities, especially on her second week. Because as much as she enjoys rebelling against her father – it's funny seeing his nostrils flare as he tries to keep his shit together – she's not quite sure he would appreciate her getting kicked out of Barden so soon.

And that doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world, but her new friend, Benji – she only met him last Monday, but she actually considers him a friend, okay – is a really nice kid, and if she gets kicked out, then she'll most likely have to say goodbye to another friend and move to France with her mom and her stepdad, which she has come to Atlanta to actually _avoid_.

Plus, she sucks at speaking French, so she's not sure how long she'd survive there.

She kind of hates staying with her dad though because he always wants them to spend "quality time together as a family" (gross), and Atlanta is much warmer than Portland (and probably France) and she despises heat.

But there's a tree just outside her bedroom window that, if she had a reason, she could totally climb down and escape in desperate times, or maybe someone else could climb up it and whisk her away. She doubts that'll ever happen though, and she's gonna kill Jesse for making her watch all of these movies that give her majorly false expectations.

She also likes hanging out with her new friend Benji because he's always showing her magic tricks. She doesn't know what the average number of tricks someone can perform in two weeks is, but she's pretty sure that she's seen Benji do at least eleven million since she met him.

They had met when she signed up for the winter musical on her first day – a rendition of the movie _Mean Girls_ , titled: _Mean Girls The Musical_.

(So original, it hurts.)

And _honestly_ , she only signed up because she's intrigued to know how the _hell_ they're going to make that movie into a stage show. Plus, she kind of low-key loves theatre – she played Cathy in her old high school's performance of The Last Five Years and she _slayed_ , she'll have you know – and she might be able to get some extra credits if it's a success. A _success_ meaning: if more than five people show up to the final performances.

Benji, the kid running the whole _Mean Girls_ musical, had been counting something on his fingers when Beca had approached the sign-up table, hoping to only apply as an extra, or even one of the musicians. But when she had asked him what he was counting, he had said – with probably more distress than necessary – that the sign-ups were ending at 3PM and they were _one dancer down_.

Tragic.

(She figured that the auditions would be sometime that first week, but was surprised to learn that they were two weeks from then. Surely somebody else would sign up in that two week gap, but Beca didn't question it because Benji looked like he was going to puke.)

So maybe signing up to audition to be a _dancer_ in a musical about a movie that she's _pretty_ sure has like five songs in it altogether, _isn't_ something Beca Mitchell intended to do on her first day at Barden High School. But she did it, and she's wondering now what the _hell_ possessed her to even approach Benji in the first place. But Benji seems sweet and he knows Jesse too.

Maybe she should hate the son of the woman who her father left her mother for, but Jesse is alright – _sometimes_ he's not annoying – and he's nothing like his mother, and he doesn't treat her like she's dumb or poor or a loner like the kids in Portland did. _And_ he reminds her a lot of her friend, Luke, back home, which is kinda nice too. He can be annoying, but she puts up with it.

Plus, Jesse makes nice oatmeal cookies, and she doesn't have to pretend that she's cool around him, because he's seen the childhood photos of her with a fake afro on her head and a bright yellow plastic microphone in her hand, pretending to be Michael Jackson in her old backyard. (Although, if he so much as mentions that again, she won't be held responsible for what happens to him.)

Maybe this whole _moving across the country to attend a high school that her dad teaches at_ isn't such a bad idea, or at least it wasn't up until about ten minutes ago when she entered the detention room and remembered that her audition is like – she looks at the clock again – _five minutes ago_. And she shouldn't be bothered, really, but Benji is counting on her, and she doesn't want to add to his already growing list of things to be anxious about.

Her fourteenth day at Barden and she's already worried about letting someone down.

One would think she actually cares.

(She totally doesn't care.)

* * *

Maybe she does care.

Just a little bit.

Because after detention – after having to sit through an hour of stupid jokes from the guy she'd punched (who she had learned was named Tom) and whispered comments from the Asian girl about how she once found a meth lab in an old barn, and how she once let sixteen frogs loose in the school, and how she once scattered tacks all over the floor of one of the chemistry labs and caused a fire (how she did that, Beca will never know, she daren't ask) and more stories that Beca is pretty sure are just lies – she had bumped into Benji on her way out of the room.

Literally.

He had been walking up the corridor with a clipboard in his hand, mumbling something as he kept his eyes on the board in front of him, and Beca had barged out of the room, abruptly sending the two of them barreling to the floor. She ignored the comments from Tom and his friends – yes, he actually has friends, Beca was shocked too – about the two of them needing to get a room (seriously? Gross.)

And she had to resist the urge to punch him again after he started to make fake kissing noises towards the two of them (again, gross. Nothing against Benji, but the thought of kissing him makes Beca feel sick. She's only known him for two weeks, but he's like the little brother she never wanted.) So instead she counts to five as she stands up, and holds her hand out to help him up.

"Sorry, man," she says quietly, and she knows that she missed the audition – which, _she's_ not too torn up about, but Benji was kind of excited to see her there – and she can see it in his face that he's disappointed. "Listen," she starts to say, pulling her backpack onto both shoulders and not just one (because apparently one strapping isn't cool in Atlanta) and he looks down at his clipboard, smoothing out the sheets of paper on it.

"Sorry I missed the audition, my day kinda sucked ass; this Tom guy made some shitty comment about my shoes and I got detention and…" she trails off, following Benji's eyes when he looks down at her shoes. And yeah, Tom was right, her converse are kind of beaten up, and they're almost black (compared to the whiteness of them when she first got them two years ago) and maybe she shouldn't have punched him, now that she thinks about it.

But really, his haircut alone is worth _at least_ a bitch slap.

She's doing the world a favor.

"What's wrong with your shoes?" Benji asks her, all innocent and 60% concern, and he says, "I mean, they're kinda beaten down but isn't that how all the cool kids wear them?" and Beca laughs.

Actually _laughs_ , which shocks her.

Shocks her so much that she actually widens her eyes and shuts her mouth immediately, because _God_ , her laugh is the _worst_.

"Sorry again, Benj," she says, both hands coming up to grip her backpack straps, and she doesn't say sorry often, but she's said it twice within like, a minute, and Benji must sense it because he nods and smiles at her and tells her not to worry about it.

Jesse has a habit of popping out of nowhere, kind of like a meerkat, which is why it doesn't surprise Beca when he comes up behind her and slaps her lightly on the forehead.

(Okay, maybe it surprises her a little bit.

So much that, if she hadn't heard Benji say, "hey Jesse," she probably would've been thrown in detention again for punching someone else.)

He makes some kind of squawking sound which sounds a lot like her name – she wonders how long it took him to come up with _that_ – and he tells her that her shoe lace is untied, and she almost looks down, but he did this to her yesterday. When she looked down, he had laughed and said, "Made you look, made you stare, made you lose your underwear."

(Like, legitimately, he said that, as if he _isn't_ sixteen years old.)

So she just laughs a sarcastic, "ha _ha_ , very funny" and takes a small step back, because Jesse isn't aware of Beca's personal bubble. Either that, or he doesn't care.

Benji tells her that some other girl with bad posture and blonde frizzy hair had auditioned last minute for a dancing role, replacing Beca, but he tells her that he's not gonna lie, he'd probably be mad at her if that girl hadn't auditioned. Which, _okay_ , she understands. She promises that she'll help out backstage, which he looks very happy about, and she wonders why he hadn't asked anybody to help him beforehand. Surely running a school performance practically on your own – save for the drama teacher – isn't the easiest thing in the world, especially for a sophomore when said performance will also be involving seniors.

(She hates seniors.

They're only two years older than her but still, they act like they rule the school or some shit. It's annoying.)

Benji tells her that he'd appreciate some help, mostly with costumes and the music ( _definitely_ the music) and before Beca knows it, she's landed a job as Benji's Assistant Manager.

It's not a big deal, actually, but Benji seems super excited about it. Plus, _Assistant Manager_ sounds a lot better than being assigned – as Jesse had so _nicely_ put it – Benji's bitch.

After discussing times when they'll be meeting before, during, and after school as they make their way out of the school building, Jesse quotes _Hamlet_ or something and stretches his neck up as if looking for someone.

 _Again_ with the meerkat thing.

Benji parts from them with a ruffle of Beca's hair and a tap on Jesse's shoulder, and some comment about needing to sort out the rehearsal schedule before they announce the roles next week, and Beca waves him off as Jesse just nods, head still stretched upwards.

She's never really liked meerkats.

* * *

Dinner that night – her dad's homemade meatloaf, _ugh_ – is boring.

It's Friday, and Beca thought that Jesse would have somewhere to be, since he's actually quite popular and all, (that also surprised her too.)

But when he tells the step-monster – the name that Beca has not-so-secretly assigned to Sheila – that he has no plans for tonight, and she suggests that they go bowling since "The night is still young", Beca suddenly remembers that she's doing that _thing_ that she has to do that makes her unable to go anywhere tonight, or tomorrow, or for the rest of eternity.

It doesn't work though, and her dad tells her that "It can wait" which is _dumb_ , because he doesn't know what her non-existent plans consist of. If she _did_ actually have plans that stopped her from going bowling with the Family From Hell (yes, uppercase is necessary) then she's sure as hell that they wouldn't be able to just "wait."

And she tries to think of another excuse, ("I have homework", "There's a big project due on Monday", "I need to meet Benji to help him arrange the auditionee's names into alphabetical order", "Didn't you hear, the bowling place shut down _years_ ago?", "I just _really_ don't want to be there.")

But eventually she has to agree to go, because, "You've always liked bowling, Beca." Which is _true_ , but that was when she was like, _nine_ ; that was before her dad decided to leave her mom for another woman. So really, he shouldn't get a say in what she enjoys anymore.

She finds herself in the back of her dad's SUV – a fairly expensive car for an English teacher, she must say – listening to some song from a movie soundtrack that Jesse had put on, and of course, Jesse's a mommy's boy so Sheila hadn't said anything, just let him turn it up and sing along (really badly) to it.

Maybe he's not _that_ bad of a singer.

In fact, he's actually good. But Beca won't tell him that. His head is already big enough.

She wishes, several times, for the ground to swallow her whole as Jesse sings along to Kansas' 'Carry On My Wayward Son' (complete with air guitar and everything) and she has never been more thankful to hear music actually get turned off.

Which just proves how hellish this actually is, because she practically lives and breathes music.

"We're here guys!" her dad exclaims in a way that makes Beca wonder if he actually _knows_ that there are two tenth graders in the back of the car, _not_ five year olds. She holds back on the comment though, because maybe if she stays quiet, her dad will forget she's even there, and she can just sit in the arcade and think of ways in which she can incorporate the music from the dance machines into a mix.

But life doesn't work the way Beca wants it to and her dad _does_ notice when she sneaks off to play PacMan, and he's waiting for her, doing that thing he does where he pokes the inside of his cheek with his tongue, one hand resting on his belt and the other one holding a pair of bowling shoes.

Beca finishes up the game after she gets eaten by one of the stupid red ghost things, whatever they are ("assholes," Beca calls them) and she walks over to her dad with her hands stuffed into her jacket pockets.

"I'm not wearing those." She nods her head towards the shoes as she walks past him, and she doesn't even have to look behind her to know that he's following her with his jaw set firmly in place, because _damn_ Beca if she's going to ruin _another_ family outing.

(Only a couple of days after she moved in with them before school started, they had all gone to a pizza place – apparently Jesse's favorite – as a _welcome_ gift for Beca, where you can make your own pizzas. And trust Beca to be the one who put practically _everything_ on the pizza, before proceeding to break the frozen yogurt machine by kicking it because "It only filled up half of my cup, this is some serious bullsh–poop.")

It's hardly a family outing when Beca wants nothing to do with these people.

Except maybe Jesse, because he's not _that_ bad, okay.

Sometimes.

(She's gonna try _not_ to get them kicked out of the bowling place. Maybe then they'll forgive her for last time.)

* * *

She finds out that bowling with Jesse Swanson is the worst.

He sings 'The Final Countdown' whenever it's Beca's turn to bowl, and she swears he gets louder each time. That, and fifteen minutes in, he starts throwing chips at her.

She tells him to "fudge off" (because God forbid you use bad language in front of Sheila!) and he just, you guessed it, throws more chips at her. Up until the moment he's about to bowl, and Beca yells, "oh my God, it's Carrie Underwood!" and Jesse almost drops the bowling ball on his feet as he swings around, eyes and mouth wide open, doing that stupid meerkat thing.

Idiot.

"That was a dick move!" Jesse tells her, but he's laughing because Beca's laughing too, but then his eyes widen when his mom yells at him for swearing, and Beca's laughing even harder, even _louder_.

(She's doing that thing where she holds her hands up in front of her, ready to start clapping like a seal as she laughs with her mouth wide open, and her eyebrows furrowed, and _good God_ , this is why she doesn't laugh often.)

And okay, maybe she's in a good mood for the rest of the night, especially after her dad buys her some chili cheese nachos, because she actually feels like her dad is _trying_ with her.

 _She_ certainly isn't trying, and she just scoffs every time her dad brings up a childhood story of hers (like how she once threw a bowling ball into the next lane when she was eight and it was the first time she ever knocked all of the pins down. Or that one time she climbed on top of the counter when she was six because she wanted a large Coke, but there were a few people in front of her in the line, so she thought it would be a smart idea to get the Coke herself because, " _man_ , do they not know I want some Coke, do I have to do _everything_ myself around here?") But it's kind of funny, hearing the stories that she had forgotten about, and even some stories that she's never heard before.

(She's definitely convinced that the story he tells about her deciding to run down the bowling lane to knock all of the pins down herself, and then proceeding to run from lane to lane to knock everybody else's down, is a lie. She may have been a little shit, and maybe a little bit stubborn, and – okay, maybe it _might_ be true.)

By the time they get home it's close to 10PM, and Jesse asks her if she wants to watch a movie (either _Jaws_ or _Rocky_ , he had said, claiming that they are the best scored and sound-tracked movies of _all time_ ) but because Beca doesn't hate herself, she declines with a polite, "I'd rather shoot myself in the face with a horse tranquilizer," as she makes her way up to her room.

 _Yes_ , that's polite.

* * *

When she wakes up on Saturday, it's with a well-mannered "get the fu– _hell_ off of me" aimed at whoever the hell is pulling at her duvet, accompanied with a swift kick of her legs when she feels them start to tickle her feet.

Of course it's Jesse. She knows, because he's laughing that dorky high-pitched laugh he does when he's acting childish, and if it was her dad, she'd probably – _definitely_ – be getting a lecture about it not being polite for a girl her age to say stuff like that. But because it's _not_ her dad, she tells him to fuck _off_ a few more times, before she feels him bouncing up and down on her legs.

"Fine, okay, _fine_ – I'm awake! I'm up! God, you're so _heavy_." She kicks her legs again, trying to pry them from underneath Jesse as she peaks over the covers at him, only to see him grinning at her. "Whadda you want, and why d'you look like the Joker from Superman?" she asks, seeing the bright colors painted on his face.

"The Joker's from Batman."

"Whatever."

"We're going to a soccer game."

"Nope."

With all due respect to Jesse Swanson (although Beca's not sure how much respect he's truly due), he has never been one to back down, and she respects that, despite how annoying it can be. Years of Christmases, Thanksgivings, even _Easters_ , spent down in Atlanta with her dad's side of the family – leaving her mother at home with her stepdad, who she's still sure doesn't even know her name – has prepared her for Jesse's tenacity to get her to do something she doesn't want to do. And she knows it can be hard – sometimes _impossible_ – to win an argument with Jesse but today, as the Bruno Mars song goes, she doesn't feel like doing anything, she just wants to lay in her bed.

It's a really, _really_ comfy bed. And that's a really, _really_ catchy song.

She definitely doesn't want to go see a soccer game with Jesse Swanson. She watched a movie with him last week and she went bowling yesterday, what more does the kid want?

He uses the fact that she's like, _imprisoned_ underneath him to his advantage though, and he starts bouncing up and down again, practically crushing her legs in the process, and he tells her that if she comes along, he'll buy her a hotdog. And he also tells her that Benji is still kinda bummed about the fact that she missed the audition so she has to make it up to him.

Beca's sold though, and it's totally not because if Jesse bounces on her one more time, she's pretty sure her legs will break.

(She's fragile, okay.)

"You had me at _hot dog_ , now get the _hell_ off of me."

"Awesome!" he says, slapping her leg and yelling "we're setting off in twenty minutes!" as he runs out of her room.

Awesome.

* * *

So maybe she should have showered before they set off, but it's like 9AM, and Beca Mitchell doesn't _wake up_ before 9AM on weekends, never mind _shower_ before 9AM on weekends.

Changing into her black tank top and skinny jeans, she has to resist the urge to just climb back into bed, because she's not sure even a _hot dog_ is worth getting up before noon for anymore. And she's practically ready to take her clothes off and shout down to Jesse that she'll pass, when Jesse himself knocks on her door and asks her if she's ready because Benji's here and the game starts in a half hour.

So she begrudgingly picks up her grey jacket and her headphones and follows Jesse downstairs. Of course, her dad is standing at the bottom of the steps like some proud father watching his daughter go off to her first day of kindergarten, and she can't help but roll her eyes when he tells them, "have fun, and call me if the Bellas win!"

Who the _fuck_ in their right mind names their soccer team the _Bellas_ , is what she wants to know.

Benji drives and he's actually really careful, unlike Jesse who she's convinced hasn't even passed his driving test yet.

He tends to choose singing at the top of his voice over actually watching where he's going, and yes, Beca has her little jam sessions sometimes – although not in the car, because she hasn't passed her driving test yet – but even _she_ knows that you should keep your eyes on the fuckin' road, no matter how good your rendition of 'Bad Girls Club' may be, _Jesse_.

Beca listens to her music on the way to the game – a mash-up of about five disgustingly cheesy, surprisingly catchy, pop songs that she'll _never_ actually admit to mixing with her own fingers – while she makes herself comfortable in the seat behind Jesse. She can hear the boys talking about something, but can't exactly tell what they're saying due to her music. All she knows is that it requires a lot of hand gestures from Jesse, and a lot of _laughing-so-hard-he-keeps-slapping-the-steering-wheel_ from Benji.

She's kind of a little bit confused when they pull up in the school parking lot, parking next to a bright pink beetle that practically _screams_ "I'm a daddy's girl."

"Uh, guys?" she asks, slipping her headphones down her head until they're resting around her neck, and she leans forward as Benji turns the car off. "What're we doing at school?"

"We're at the soccer game, you weirdo. Do you not pay attention to anything?"

She frowns as she takes her seatbelt off and gets out of the car, stuffing her phone into her pocket. Jesse and Benji are both already out of the car by the time she pushes the door shut, and she hears the click of Benji's car keys as he locks it, before they start walking away from her.

"If you promised me a hot dog from _Barden_ then I'm literally gonna walk home; you know how shitty the hot dogs are here."

"Jesus. Who lit the fuse on _your_ tampon?"

She mutters " _fuck_ off," under her breath as Benji laughs shyly as she catches up to them.

"Stop stressing little grasshopper," Jesse continues, patting her on the head. "The hotdog place down the street sponsors the team. Even _I_ wouldn't eat Barden's hot dogs, doesn't matter how cheap they are."

She smirks as Benji says, "you'd eat a _sock_ if someone dared you to," followed by a sarcastic comment from Jesse about it depending on which flavor the sock is, as they make their way up to the school entrance.

They're both fucking weirdos, and she has no idea why she's here.

* * *

She almost kills Jesse when he sneaks a picture of her while he's waiting in line for a hotdog. She's sat down thinking about whether she would be able to mix Fall Out Boy's 'Centuries' with Fifth Harmony's 'Sledgehammer' when he takes the picture. And honestly, he's not even secretive about it, because Beca can hear the shutter sound of the camera followed by Jesse laughing from a _mile_ away. That, and two seconds later, he tells her to check Instagram, and she sees that he's tagged her in the photo.

She _almost_ kills him, but he's buying her a hot dog, so she can hold out for maybe a few more hours.

Plus, the paint he's wearing on his face makes him look like an idiot and he wouldn't look half as funny wearing it if he was dead.

Benji is wearing practically the same paint on his face, and Beca thinks they look ridiculous. That is, until she sees a few more people wearing it, and she suddenly feels like she's the one who stands out, considering the fact that she's practically the only one who doesn't have bright paint on her face. The school's traditions are weird, and she wonders why the hell people actually go all out for a soccer game. It's not like it's _that_ important.

The hotdog she's eating is more important, obviously, and is surprisingly really nice, and Beca finishes hers before they even get to their seats. Jesse mentions something about her being way too small to eat that fast, but she ignores him as she sits down and waits for the game to start. She's here now, so the least she could do is _act_ interested, even if there _are_ hundreds of people around her with their stupid faces painted like idiots.

She's _not_ interested though.

She just wants it to be over.

"Why is there a fox in a flight attendant uniform on the field?"

"It's the team mascot, and it's a kangaroo," Jesse replies with his mouth around the bread on his hotdog, and Beca pulls a face, because that is _not_ a fucking kangaroo.

"That's not a kangaroo, that's like… a fox, or a rabbit, or some shit."

"Shut up, the game's starting."

She just rolls her eyes as she looks out at the field, watching the two players in the middle wait for the whistle to blow.

Ten minutes in, and the Bellas have already scored. Some striker named Posen, who Jesse starts gushing about, saying that she's super uptight but also super pretty, and that she's really, really smart, and that she's also best friends with the captain, but Beca isn't really listening when he starts talking about the best friend. It's hard to listen when Jesse starts talking too fast.

Plus, she's watching the fox in the flight attendant uniform (it's not a fucking kangaroo) trying to do cartwheels and round-offs, and it's much more entertaining than Jesse will ever be.

She always thought soccer was stupid; the whole concept of it is stupid. She's watching twenty-two girls kicking a ball around the field, and it's supposed to go on for an hour and a half. That's dumb. She just thanks God that she brought her headphones with her.

By the time the game is finished, Beca's listened to the whole _RENT_ soundtrack and completed almost thirty levels of Candy Crush. She doesn't even realize it's over until she feels Jesse pull one of her headphone cups away from her ear and lets go of it so it hits her. The scowl she gives him is enough to make him take a step behind Benji as he mutters, "sorry, the game is over and we're leaving."

Jesse, with the ridiculous paint smudged all over his face, waves to someone on the field, and it looks like he's about to go down and see them, but he decides against it, making weird gestures towards them. She looks down at the field, wondering for a brief moment who it is he's gesturing to, and why he's not going down to see them, but she doesn't see anybody that looks like they're talking to Jesse. Maybe he's just crazy. Then again, she really doesn't feel like meeting any new people today, so she's glad when Jesse waves goodbye to them – whoever _them_ is – and the three of them go back to the car.

They go to Taco Bell on the way back, despite how they all had a hotdog at the game. Jesse reasons that he hasn't had his "salad fix" today, which is why he gets extra lettuce in his crunchwrap, saying that it "weighs out the other fatty stuff" – which is probably _not_ true at all – while Beca just orders a five-layer beef burrito because, "go hard or go home, Swanson."

When they get back home, Jesse tells Benji that he'll see him later, but Beca is too busy trying to beat her high score of one thousand and forty four on Follow The Line to pay attention. She waves her hand at Benji as he drives away before going straight into the house.

Her dad is immediately in her face, almost making her drop her phone, asking questions about the game and if the Bellas won and if she enjoyed herself and blah blah blah.

"Jesse'll tell you all about it," is all she says before she goes upstairs, making it just over halfway up before she hears Jesse shouting her name. She locks her phone and turns around, standing on the fourth step from the top as she looks down at Jesse, who is standing with his phone in his hand and a huge grin on his paint-smeared face.

"Chloe just texted me about you."

"Who?"

"Chloe _Beale_ , I literally talked about her at the game."

 _So that's who he must've been waving at_ , she thinks.

"Yeah, I wasn't listening." She turns around and finishes walking back upstairs, and she rolls her eyes when she hears Jesse following her into her room.

She hasn't had time to decorate her room much, apart from the old posters that she brought from her room in Portland and a few photos of her, Luke, Donald, and a few other friends from a few years back stuck on her wall. There's a full bookshelf in the corner though, which is just about enough decoration she needs. Plus, she has her mixing equipment on her desk, which is where she spends most of her time.

She collapses onto her bed, unlocking her phone again to carry on playing Follow The Line, when Jesse, lo and behold, flops down next to her, looking down at his own phone as he starts talking about something. She glances beside her, seeing Jesse's texts to this "Chloe" girl pretty clearly. She's thanking him for coming to the game and asking him who Beca is, and contrary to popular belief, Beca's not _completely_ rude, which is why she looks away when she realizes she shouldn't be looking at other people's texts, even if they _are_ talking about her.

She decides to zone out when she hears Aubrey's name again. She manages to catch the words "really pretty" about fifteen times, "smart" nine times, and "aliens" once and "chainsaws" and–"Wait, what?"

"I knew you weren't listening!"

"Jesse," she groans. "I'm trying to beat my high score; leave me alone."

"This is how you wanna spend your Saturday?" he asks her, putting his phone in his back pocket, and she kind of feels a little guilty under his stare. "Come to Bumper's sixteenth with me tonight."

"No."

"His parents are out of town and said he can have some friends over, come on. Don't be a party pooper."

"I don't even know who _Bumper_ is, so no thank you."

"He's the kangaroo that you were watching for the majority of the game today."

"It's a fox."

"Come _on_ , you didn't come last week and you promised you'd come to one with me."

"I never _promised_ anything. I'd rather gouge my eyeballs out than be surrounded by gross, sexually confused, prepubescent fifteen and sixteen year olds."

"Hey, _I'm_ a gross, sexually confused, prepubescent fifteen year old."

She shakes her head. "Which is why I'll _pass_ , thanks."

"Nah, you're right." He locks his phone and puts it in his pocket. "I'm not gross at all. Can you imagine?" he laughs.

"Oh, I don't have to imagine."

He reaches his hand out, snatching the phone out of her hands, before running out of the room. And she yells her name, and she can hear him giggling, followed by loud thumping footsteps running downstairs, and she mutters "for fuck's sake" as she gets up and walks out of her room.

She finds him downstairs sitting on the kitchen counter, her phone in his hands with a confused look on his face.

"Jesse, give me my phone back."

"How do you play this game?" he asks her, ignoring the fact that she's walking over to him with probably the deathliest glare she can manage. And it's not that he's not scared, because he is. Beca _knows_ that he is. She's pretty sure under his cheesy grin that he always sports, there's a scared little boy hoping to God that Beca doesn't punch him.

Which is kind of too late now, though.

She punches him on the thigh as hard as she can, and she watches as he gasps, his grip on Beca's phone tightening as he falls off of the counter with a loud bang. And despite the fact that he still has Beca's phone in his hand and he could drop it at _any_ moment, Beca finds it hilarious. So much so that she does that laugh again, where she kind of doesn't make any sound, just bends over with her mouth wide open and her eyes scrunched together as she claps her hands.

"What's going on?"

She turns around, wiping the corner of her eye as she watches her dad walk into the kitchen, peering over the table to see Jesse sat on the floor holding his leg.

"She hit me!"

"Beca," her dad warns.

"He stole my phone!"

"Jesse."

Jesse stands up. "She started it!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!" She snatches her phone out of his hand, and just as Jesse is about to say "did too" again, her dad slams his hands on the table, making the two of them jump.

"You kids are driving me crazy!" he yells, and if it was anybody else, the volume would scare Beca, but the tone of his voice is unusually high, and he's doing that thing where he flares his nostrils again, and yeah, it's kind of really fucking hilarious. So she laughs. Of course she laughs. She loves winding her father up. And not long after, Jesse starts laughing as well, and her dad is glaring at the two of them as his hands still rest on the table in front of him.

He eventually throws his hands up, muttering something about "damn kids acting like two year olds" as he walks back into his study, probably going back to grading homework, and Beca and Jesse are still laughing in the kitchen, imitating the way he had yelled at them.

"You're coming to the party with me. Chloe will be there."

"Who's Chloe?"

"For God's _sake_ Beca, do you ever listen to me?"

The answer is no. It's always no.

But she might have been listening.

Jesse doesn't need to know that, though.

* * *

It takes Beca a while to convince Jesse to go to the party without her because she has to do homework. He tells her "nobody does homework on Saturdays, that's what Monday mornings are for," but eventually, after her dad tells Jesse to leave her alone, and after Beca pulls some faces at Jesse from behind her dad's back, Jesse leaves with a promise that he won't be back too late.

At least he's wiped the paint off of his face, which after a while started to smudge together into a disgusting brown color, which honestly just made it look like he'd fallen face-first into a pile of shit.

Despite her previous statement that she has homework, she spends her afternoon working on a mix, trying to incorporate as many Twenty One Pilots songs into one as possible. She manages to create a mix of Tear In My Heart, Screen, and House of Gold, before it gets too much and she saves it before uploading it to Tumblr and sending the link to Luke.

She quickly Googles 'time difference between Atlanta GA and Portland OR' because despite how many times she's been down here for Christmases and Thanksgivings, she's never remembered what the time difference is, and she wants to know if Luke is still at work or not. She knows that he works from three to ten at the radio station on Saturdays, and it's only 5PM over in Portland now, so she busies herself with Chemistry homework until he texts her about the mix she sent him.

He's the only one she trusts enough with her music. She knows that he's honest, and that he doesn't just brush them off with a "that's great" because Luke has a lot of experience with music, given the fact that his dad has owned a radio station since Luke was young. Whenever they talk about Beca's mixes, he always goes into detail about the things he likes best about them, or what she could do to improve them, and he sometimes plays them on the radio in Portland, and he records every show and sends her them so she can listen to her music being played _publicly_.

It's not a big deal, because the radio station isn't _huge_ , but it still makes Beca feel somewhat accomplished.

Her Chem homework is interrupted by her phone vibrating on her desk, and she quickly picks it up, thinking that it's Luke. It surprises her, however, when she sees that she has a friend request from someone named Chloe Beale – and she recognizes the name from Jesse's rambling earlier – before her phone vibrates again, and a Facebook message comes through.

 **[20:29 PM] Chloe Beale:**  
 _Hey there! :-) I'm friends with Jesse and Benji and I just wanted to thank you for coming to the game today! Always nice to have a pretty girl supporting us! Jesse says you just started Barden, so if you ever need someone to show you around, I'm totally free! It's not every day I offer people tours of the school, but you seem nice. :D Hope this isn't too weird! Xoxo_

Okay.

It _is_ weird.

Really weird, actually.

Chloe called her _pretty_ , and _nice_. And put 'xoxo,' and Beca didn't even know that was a _thing_ that people do these days; she only thought that happened on Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars.

She doesn't even _know_ Chloe, but she's already kind of intimidated by her. But at the same time, who the hell goes around telling new kids that they're free to give them a tour of the school? Especially when said new kid is Beca Mitchell: full-time _geek_.

It's got to be some sort of prank.

 **[20:34 PM] Beca Mitchell:**  
 _'Pretty' and 'nice' aren't quite words I'd use to describe myself, but thanks I guess; I'll keep that in mind._

She waits a few minutes before sending it, not wanting to seem too eager. Which is stupid because she doesn't care what Chloe Beale thinks of her. She's never seen Chloe Beale before in her life.

It's kind of surprising when Chloe responds straight away, because Beca remembers Jesse saying that Chloe was going to the party tonight. Surely she has better things to do than message Beca.

 **[20:34 PM] Chloe Beale:**  
 _It's not a problem! The school can be pretty big and scary, especially to new people. Even I get lost sometimes. P.s. just because you don't use the word 'pretty' to describe yourself doesn't mean I can't ;) xoxo_

Beca's eyes widen. Is Chloe… _flirting_? With _her_?

Nope.

Haha. She doesn't need this right now.

 **[20:40 PM] Beca Mitchell:**  
 _If you get lost, why would I trust you to show me around? Kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?_

Nice. Not too awkward and not too friendly.

 **[20:41 PM] Chloe Beale:** _  
Maybe we could get lost together xo_

Beca ignores the weird feeling she gets in her stomach at that, passing it off as just being hungry. She stands up as she types a message out, going downstairs to get something to eat.

 **[20:45 PM] Beca Mitchell:**  
 _That sounds dangerous. I'm not sure I can trust you to not get me murdered._

 **[20:47 PM] Chloe Beale:**  
 _In a school? We're not in Student Bodies. Plus, I'm a soccer player. I could totally kick the murderer's ass._

 **[20:49 PM] Beca Mitchell:** _  
We're not in what?_

As she waits for Chloe to reply, she gets a bag of chips out of the pantry and pours herself a glass of apple juice.

(Wild Saturday night for Beca Mitchell.)

 **[20:54 PM] Chloe Beale:** _  
Student Bodies?! 1981 comedy horror movie?_

 **[20:56 PM] Beca Mitchell:** _  
Don't watch movies._

 **[20:58 PM] Chloe Beale:** _  
:O Who ARE you?_

When she smiles, she hears someone clearing their throat behind her and she turns around to see her dad leaning against the counter, his arms crossed and a smile on his face.

"Good evening."

"Hey."

"Who're you texting?"

"Somebody."

She leans against the counter opposite him, itching to reply to Chloe, which isn't like her at all. She normally doesn't care about replying to people. She doesn't mind if other people have to wait.

She doesn't care.

(If she tells herself that enough, maybe she'll start to believe it.)

Her dad tells her that the "somebody" she's texting sure must be special, because he's been standing there the whole time and Beca hadn't noticed him. That, and she's been smiling like an idiot since she came downstairs, which she didn't even realize until he pointed it out.

She doesn't really need to explain anything to him though, so she just tells him she has homework – A+ excuse – and she walks away before he can say anything else.

Turns out Chloe Beale is the captain of the Barden Bellas soccer team that Jesse was rambling on about earlier. Beca knows this because Chloe carries on talking to her for another few hours, after Beca tells her that she's not a huge fan of movies; a conversation she seems to have with everybody.

Chloe had explained what the movie is about; a serial killer at a high school who stalks female students and kills them using unusual objects. Beca doesn't quite understand why the fuck someone would watch that type of movie but hey, she's not judging.

(Maybe she's judging a little bit.)

Chloe talks mostly about herself or asks Beca random questions, like what she likes to do, what classes she's taking, and why she decided to move to Barden, until Beca tells her that she's run out of her daily number of questions to ask. Beca learns that Chloe is in most of her classes, and it's kind of strange how she's never really noticed her before.

She figures that Chloe _isn't_ at the party, because they've been talking for two hours, and she doubts Chloe would ditch a party to talk to someone she barely knows.

Conversation seems to come naturally though, which is kind of a red flag.

Plus, she realizes after a while that she hasn't managed to get much of her homework done, so she tells Chloe that she's gonna go to bed. It's only eleven, and she's not _actually_ going to bed, but there's only so much Facebook messaging with a stranger that she can do until she starts to feel like the conversation is being too drawn out. And she doesn't really want to get used to this.

Chloe tells her to sleep well, and it's oddly comforting, and maybe she's _not_ pranking her after all.

Beca accepts the friend request before going back to her homework, waiting for Luke to call her.

* * *

She spends Monday morning in Physics class listening to Jesse and Benji talking about Tomb Raider and trying to take notes of what the hell Mr. Kahn is saying. His voice is already quiet without having Jesse and Benji talking over him, which he oddly doesn't even seem to mind. Beca's convinced he's turning deaf though, so it doesn't surprise her that he doesn't seem to notice them.

Instead, he's writing equations on the board for the class to find the answers to, but Beca can't seem to concentrate on anything right now, especially anything to do with Math. Instead, she starts to doodle musical notes and planets and stars on the corner of the page, until the margin is half full.

She spent all of Sunday talking to Chloe again, which was odd. She normally can't even hold a conversation for ten minutes, across the phone or not, but somehow she managed to hold one that lasted all day. Like literally, from about 11AM to 10PM.

 _It's weird_ , she thinks, as she fills the rest of the margin.

Chloe had sent her a Facebook message again at 8AM – _why_ she was up at that time on a Sunday, Beca will never know – asking her if there's any chance she's in Mr. Krämer's German class, because she somehow missed the homework he had assigned on Friday. Unfortunately, Beca's German teacher is actually a tall, blonde, German woman who is _insanely_ attractive, and who Beca hasn't even learned the name of yet because every time she talks, Beca kind of gets lost in her beauty.

Or whatever other reason that doesn't make Beca sound like a horny teenage boy.

Obviously, she hadn't said this to Chloe. She just told her that she has no idea who Mr. Krämer is, and Chloe had used this as a cue to carry on talking to her about Mr. Krämer and his ability to make almost _any_ lesson fun by just being the idiot that is himself.

And maybe Beca's kind of a little jealous because _at least_ Chloe is learning things in German without having a ridiculously hot teacher to distract her, even though she _is_ kind of strict and does this scary, intimidating _glare_ whenever she sees that someone isn't listening to her.

(Beca's only been on the receiving end of that glare once, but it was enough to almost make her cry.)

They spent the rest of the day talking about things that Beca can't even explain because she honestly can't remember; all she remembers is that Chloe doesn't mind sharing things about herself, and she uses _way_ too many emojis. It's _weird_ , because despite them not really _knowing_ each other, they still managed to talk all day about nothing and everything, and Beca thinks that maybe if Chloe wasn't a popular soccer player, they could be good friends. Not that she _needs_ any more friends.

She's perfectly content with the two she already has.

(Four now, including Jesse and Benji. Or maybe she'll take that to three, because Jesse is too annoying to be considered her friend; she just kind of _has_ to put up with him due to him being her step-brother and all.)

Luke had called her on Sunday, apologizing for not texting her back on Saturday night, and Beca may have logged into Facebook on her laptop for the first time in months to message Chloe back, because she kind of didn't want to make Chloe think she was ignoring her.

She'll deny that if anybody asks, though.

If she's honest, she's kind of reluctant on even _looking_ for Chloe to talk to her. She feels like it could go very badly, what with Chloe being on the soccer team and all. Maybe Chloe wants to keep their friendship on the down low. Isn't there some sort of rule about not being friends with people outside of the 'jock' circle?

Even if there isn't, Beca's still being careful, looking out for Chloe and avoiding her whenever she can. Maybe Chloe thinks she's actually cool, and she wouldn't want to let her down.

She tells herself that she shouldn't care, but for some reason, she does.

She cares a little too much.

By the time class finishes, she's filled three margins.

* * *

By Wednesday, she's managed to sneak away, completely undetected, from any places that Chloe is present.

Which is kind of hard, because Chloe is _everywhere_.

Like a fly, but much cuter and ginger-er.

She's in most of Beca's classes, which isn't as convenient as it sounds, but so far, she's managed to avoid her, because Beca always sits right at the back of the room and Chloe is always at the front. It's kind of hard to spot Beca in a class room anyway, because she kind of just sinks into herself, putting her head down every time the teacher assigns their work for them. Plus, she's always the first to leave too – and it's easy to hide behind people on the way out because of how small she is – and she knows that Chloe always hangs around after classes to wait for her friends, or to talk to the teacher about the work, so it's easier than one would think to get away with not talking to her.

Outside of the lessons they share, she first saw her after school on Monday walking towards her car, or what Beca figured was her car. She's kind of hoping the bright pink car they pulled up to on Saturday isn't Chloe's, because despite her bubbly and kind attitude, Beca's not sure she could _ever_ picture Chloe in a bright pink beetle. Beca didn't stick around long enough to find out exactly what Chloe's car looked like; running off in the opposite direction in case Chloe caught a glimpse of her.

Then she saw her in the cafeteria on Tuesday, standing in line with a blonde and some tall brunette girl, talking animatedly about something or another; Beca daren't get too close to them to listen in case she blew her cover. She guessed it was something funny though, because every time she happened to look over at Chloe, she was laughing while burying her head in the blonde's shoulder. It was kind of adorable.

Then she saw her on the field after school that same day, which Beca wasn't too surprised about. She _is_ a soccer player, after all. She was on her own though, the soccer ball sat next to her as she looked down at, what Beca guessed was, her homework, or maybe she was reading. Beca contemplated going over and saying hey, but then she realized that she'd actually have to use her _mouth_ for that, and she's not sure her mouth is able to form any coherent sentences in front of pretty girls – especially pretty soccer-playing girls – so she just carried on her journey home, making sure to stay out of sight.

It's childish – and probably a little weird; stalker-ish maybe – that she's always looking out for Chloe from afar, and running away whenever she gets too close. But it's been turning out pretty well, if you ask Beca.

That is, up until the moment Beca notices there's a shadow standing over her, and she looks up to see Chloe Beale looking down at her with a huge smile.

And then _oh_ , she's sitting down next to Beca, under her tree.

(Okay, it's not _her_ tree, but it… kinda _is_. She's been coming to this tree every day since she started school two and a half weeks ago, and nobody else seems to go _near_ it.)

"Hello there, Beca Mitchell," Chloe says, pulling out a sandwich and a bottle of water from her bag, followed by an apple that's almost the size as Beca's head, and seriously, what the _fuck_ is happening?

"Hey, Chloe Beale."

Smooth.

"Is it alright if I join you?"

 _You kind of already have_ , Beca thinks, eyeing Chloe's lunch, but she just manages a nod. Who needs words anyway?

"You're much smaller than I expected."

"Thanks, I think."

Chloe smiles. "Whatcha listening to?"

Chloe Beale is a child in a fifteen – or sixteen – year old's body, Beca has decided. And not in the same way that Jesse is.

Chloe always seems so happy and innocent, and anything she says sounds like it could come from a six year old's mouth. That, and she's pretty sure that nobody can say no to her.

Beca certainly can't say no to her.

Because when she tells Chloe that she's just listening to music and Chloe asks her, with those kiddy eyes and that kiddy smile and that kiddy tone of voice, if she can listen, Beca hands her headphones over straight away.

She doesn't even hesitate, which should be another red flag.

She's too busy watching Chloe's reaction to notice it, though.

"What is this?" she yells, her voice raised due to Beca's need to have her headphones as loud as they can go. It's kind of funny, hearing Chloe yelling and not realizing she's doing it.

"It's one of my–"

"–WHAT?" Beca breathes out a laugh, quickly taking the headphones off of Chloe's head. "Oh crap, was I talking really loud?"

" _Screaming_."

Chloe laughs, shifting so that she's sat crossed-legged in front of Beca.

"It was one of my mixes. It's not really good, but–"

Let it be known that Beca Mitchell _hates_ it when people interrupt her.

It's just kind of really fucking rude, if you ask her. What's the point of talking when you clearly know that somebody else is talking? Other than it being an emergency – like that there's a fire or there's a spider on her or there's something in her teeth or someone is running away with her headphones – then there's literally _no_ reason to interrupt.

But Chloe Beale, being the little child that she is, gets excited easily. Beca can tell because from her observations the past couple of days, when Chloe gets excited her face seems to light up like Christmas lights, and her eyes and smile widen comically, and sometimes she starts to repeatedly hit something – whatever is in her reach. Beca had noticed this in English yesterday, when Chloe's friend had said something to her and she started slapping her on the arm while bouncing in her seat. Beca could hear the commotion from her designated seat in the back of the class room without having to strain her ears to listen, like she normally does, so she could tell it was something important.

So when Chloe starts to tap the ground with both of her hands – not too eager, but definitely bordering on the excited scale – as she interrupts Beca, asking her "You make mixes?", Beca can't really stay too mad at her.

Again, with the kid theory. Kids get excited so easily and don't seem to have a filter when they're excited, and so does Chloe Beale. It's kind of really adorable, so Beca doesn't dwell too much on the fact.

"Yeah, now and then. I've been making them for three years."

"That's so cool! What got you into it?" she asks, before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"I have a friend back home, Luke. He kind of introduced me to it all. His dad owns a radio station and he would sometimes teach me and Luke everything about music and stuff."

Her eyes seem to widen by themselves, because no matter how hard she tries with her 'friends' – although she doesn't try as hard as one would hope – she's never been good at talking about herself. She's not sure why, really. Maybe it's because she doesn't find herself interesting, or maybe it's because she's had a boring childhood and talking about it would just make her sound like an outcast or something, but she's never really been a fan of talking about herself. Yet, one minute with Chloe Beale sitting in front of her, smiling at her like there's nothing bad in the world, and the personal gates have opened.

And when Chloe nods, finishing her bite and swallowing it, Beca wonders if she's just doing this to humor her. Surely Chloe Beale, captain of the soccer team and most popular kid in school, has better things to be doing than eating lunch with some unpopular, nerdy, new kid. Then again, Beca's only known Chloe since Saturday, and this is the first time they've actually been in each other's presence, so she shouldn't really be quick to judge.

People can be surprising.

Chloe is a nice surprise.

"What's your favorite mash-up you've made?" Chloe asks her as she unscrews the cap off of her bottle, and Beca thinks about the mix she made on Saturday night before Chloe messaged her.

Or rather, the mix that somehow reminds her of Chloe, despite the fact that she wasn't even aware of Chloe's existence when she was making it. (Or, she was _somewhat_ aware, but only because Jesse was rambling about her because of the game, and Beca couldn't exactly switch her ears off or _make_ them stop listening to Jesse, so she had to put up with him talking about her until he decided to steal her phone when he realized she was trying her best to ignore him.)

"I made one on Saturday with like, three Twenty One Pilots songs. I guess that's my favorite so–"

"–Can I listen?" Chloe interrupts again, and Beca sighs, looking at her to see her grinning from ear to ear. And it's ridiculous, really, that Chloe can get away with so much just because she has a nice smile.

It's not _just_ that though, and Beca is starting to figure that out as time progresses.

And it's bizarre, that Beca thought talking to Chloe face-to-face would be different than talking to her over Facebook. It's kind of the same, because after Beca shows Chloe her mix, they end up talking up until the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch, and they pack up their stuff as they make their way to Biology together.

Beca doesn't know why Chloe decided to sit with her outside on the field instead of in the cafeteria, but she doesn't think the answer matters.

There's a small possibility that Chloe is slowly becoming her friend, and that's kind of cool.

* * *

Chloe doesn't eat with her the next day, and that's kind of cool too.

It's not like Beca was expecting her to.

(She may have sat further to the right against the tree than she normally does, just in case Chloe happened to stop by. It's no big deal though.)

Beca _does_ notice that the sky is a little darker today, which is kind of funny and not at all whimsical.

She's never been one to mope over stuff like that though, so she finishes her lunch, listens to a few Fall Out Boy songs, and heads to her locker to get her Math book before class.

She hates Math. She hates how confusing it can be and she hates the way it feels like the numbers are swimming around in her head but can't quite make it to shore, and sometimes they all just drown and suffocate and it feels like her head is going to explode if they don't rise to the surface.

Math sucks, and so does her teacher with his nasally voice and disgusting pit stains and tendency to ask Beca for the answers of the questions every time she so much as takes her eyes away from the board, because he _knows_ that she won't know the answer.

Worst of all, she hates that this is the only class, apart from German, that Chloe Beale isn't in.

Which is why it obviously surprises her when she walks into Math class after lunch, eyes trained to the ground and feet walking faster than they normally can go, to see Chloe Beale sitting in her seat at the back of the room.

And then everyone is looking at her, and she realizes that this isn't her math classroom.

This classroom has German, French and Spanish flags on the walls, and world map posters in languages that she doesn't even recognize.

"Excuse me," she hears from the front of the room, and she looks down at Chloe, and somehow Chloe's smile seems to calm her down just a tiny bit. "Who are you?" the teacher asks, in his thick German accent, and Beca shakes her head, looking back and forth between Chloe and the teacher.

"This isn't Math," she says, slowly sidestepping away from Chloe towards the door, and the teacher smiles as he looks at the class.

"No. If it _was_ Math, I would be as confused as you look," he says, looking at Beca again. "I do not teach Math."

Despite the humor lacing his tone, and the small sniggers from rest of the class, Beca still feels kind of intimidated, because she's managed a whole two and a half weeks at Barden without entering the wrong class room, and the minute her mind is 10% occupied by Chloe Beale, she ends up in the wrong room, making an absolute idiot of herself.

"Sorry, my bad."

"Goodbye, small child," he says, holding a hand up to wave, and she scowls, looking back out at Chloe, who has an apologetic smile on her face.

She's fifteen minutes late to Math, because she has to wrack her brain to remember what room it is, due to her leaving her class timetable at home. When the Mr. Larson asks her, his voice more nasally than usual, where she's been, she just tells him she lost track of time.

He gives her a warning, but she's too busy thinking about what just happened to even care.

Chloe probably thinks she's an idiot.

(It affects her more than she cares to admit.)

* * *

Chloe, surprisingly, sticks to her promise of showing Beca around the school after that.

Which she is actually grateful for, because she doesn't really want a repeat of what happened. Apart from peeing her pants in third grade, that was one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to her.

It starts before school the next day. Chloe had messaged Beca that night telling her to get to school early, and with only minor complaints, Beca had managed to arrive just five minutes after Chloe had. She had shown her around a section of the school, stopping at almost every single classroom to explain to Beca which teacher it belonged to, and what lessons are taught in it. A few teachers noticed them and asked them why they were at school so early, and Beca was ready to accept a detention slip again, but Chloe had explained that Beca was new, and she needed a small tour in case she got lost, and they had let them carry on.

It made Beca wonder, if _everyone_ is prone to giving in to Chloe Beale and her need to be so nice all of the time. _She_ certainly is.

It's kind of hard to pay attention to Chloe when she's talking about the different classrooms, and the cafeteria, and the different teachers, and which people to avoid, and whatever else she's rambling on about, because she talks so fast and excitedly, that Beca has to sometimes tell her to slow down to be able to keep up with her.

After a week, they've managed to make their way around the school a few times (per Chloe's insistence) and Beca has a much better understanding of it all. Sometimes Chloe joins her at lunch, but most of the time Chloe eats with the rest of the soccer team, which Beca is fine with.

They have a weird sort of friendship, but it's fine. She likes it.

During the week she spends with Chloe touring the school, she and Benji go over all of the audition tapes for the musical, pick out which actors would be best for each role, and fit in a few music rehearsals. She doesn't bother to learn the names of the actors and actresses; all she knows is that they're good singers and they can act, which is enough.

Plus, she's only the _assistant_ manager, so really, it's all Benji's decision. She just suggests a few musical pieces and inputs a little wisdom from her Cathy performance from freshman year, telling Benji that they need somebody with talent, but not too much, and someone who can be comical if they forget a line. Unlike Joel Bodenheimer who had played opposite Beca as Jamie Wellerstein. He had forgotten the words to 'The Schmuel Song' and proceeded to improvise about Schmuel and his need to be selfish and use all the materials in the world to make a dress for himself, and clearly he had misinterpreted the whole song, and let's just say, Beca's heard better improvisation from Luke's four year-old cousin.

When Benji suggests that she play the lead instead, seeing as she knows _so much_ about it, she almost accepts, just because it sounds like a challenge.

And Beca Mitchell has never been one to back down from a challenge.

She kind of gets into a lot of trouble because of them, and most of the time it's Luke or Jesse's fault. Like when Luke dared her to do a backflip on the trampoline in his backyard when they were eleven and she almost fell off of it, or when Jesse challenged her to drinking a gallon of milk one Christmas and she threw up, or when he dared her to eat a tablespoon full of cinnamon – she honestly thought she was gonna die that day – or all of the other times they've both made her do something equally as ridiculous. One mention of "I dare you to" and she's all aboard.

But really, being the lead in a musical that isn't _even_ a musical isn't really something she wants to add to her long list of 'things I hate myself for.' So with a goodhearted shake of her head, she tells Benji to post the official rehearsal schedule to the school bulletin board, and hopes that he doesn't offer to drive her home. They've been at this for hours and she could really do with a long walk on her own.

He does offer though, because he's a sweetheart, but she declines it as politely as she can. She's not normally worried about being polite, but Benji is like her little brother, despite being older than her by a few months, and sometimes saying no to Benji is like saying no to a puppy. He understands though, telling her that he'll see her on Monday as he drives away in his beaten down little Ford.

With a text to her dad, telling him she won't be back too late, she sets off walking.

* * *

Beca's not really a subtle person when it comes down to it.

She can act like she's smooth, and that she just _happens_ to be in the same place that Chloe Beale is, because maybe it'll make her feel a little better about being kind of a creep. But she knows that Chloe sits on the field on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, because they are the only days she doesn't have soccer practice.

Beca only knows this because she walks past the soccer field every day on her way home from school, and she maybe stares a little too long out of the corner of her eye – she can be _a little_ subtle – to see if Chloe is there.

And of course, Chloe is always there. Or at least, she has been for the past two weeks. Something makes Beca think that she'll be there all of next week as well, and maybe the week after that, and so forth.

So while she tries – and fails – at being subtle, walking past the field and looking at Chloe out of the corner of her eye, she thinks that maybe she should try a new tactic. A tactic that doesn't scream "I admit am a huge creep please don't get a restraining order against me."

As that thought crosses her mind though, she watches as Chloe turns around and despite her being kind of far away, she _does_ notice her face do that thing again where it lights up like Christmas lights.

Chloe yells her name, standing up and waving, as if she _isn't_ the only one on the field, and Beca takes a few deep breaths as she puts a smile on her face – though, she doesn't have to try too hard because this is Chloe Beale for God's sake – and she tries her hardest not to stumble down the small hill that leads to the grass.

"Hey, Beca Mitchell!" Chloe shouts, still standing up, although she's stopped waving now. She's holding her hand in front of her eyes because of the sun, and it's kind of really adorable.

"Chloe Beale."

"What're you doing at school so late?"

"School only finished an hour ago." Chloe smiles as Beca finally makes it to her, grabbing Beca's hand and pulling her down to sit on the grass with her. "What are _you_ doing?"

"Homework. The periodic table can be a real bitch."

Beca quickly thinks about Jesse's so-called 'homework rule' of doing it on Monday mornings, and wonders why Chloe isn't someone who leaves their homework last minute. Surely, with her being the captain of the soccer team and part of the most popular clique in school, she has better things to do on Friday evenings than Chem homework.

She's not judging though. Beca likes Chemistry.

"I guess seeing as I'm here, I'll do it too."

"Are you good at Chemistry?"

Bragging isn't really something Beca does often, but the words come out of her mouth before she can even think of what she's saying, and she should really lay-off on the word vomit around people like Chloe.

"I was the only freshman to score full marks on every Chem test last year out of the whole school, and why the _hell_ did I just say that?"

Chloe laughs, baring those teeth that seem to ping in the sunlight, like something out of a movie, and it's kind of ridiculous, that Beca keeps comparing Chloe to all these things; kind of rude too. She can't help it though.

Chloe seems to bring out a completely different side of her. A side that compares people to things apparently.

"You're funny," Chloe says, pushing Beca's arm, and all Beca can do is smile.

It's a genuine smile too, with absolutely no force to it; something she hasn't done in a long time. Another red flag, but Beca is too busy burning a hole with her eyes in her chemistry book to notice.

The thing about Beca Mitchell and challenges, is that she's always up for them, no matter what the consequences could be.

She once climbed a tree in fifth grade because Donald told her that "girls can't climb trees." Sure, she got stuck, and they had to call the fire brigade, but she still accepted the challenge, and she still proved Donald wrong.

Her Chemistry homework can sometimes be a challenge, but she eventually cracks it. Same with Physics and English and Philosophy and Geography and just about every other subject except Math. (Math can suck her dick.) Some subjects are harder, more challenging, than others, but she still tries. Opening up to people can be a challenge – a bigger challenge than Math – but she still does it. (Apparently only to pretty redheads, but still.)

A challenge is a challenge, no matter how simple or demanding.

The worst challenge that Beca has had to face, and the first challenge that she actually finds more difficult than opening up to people, is convincing herself that she does _not_ have a _thing_ for Chloe Beale.

Which is dumb, because she hardly even _knows_ Chloe.

She's fifteen years old; she hardly even knows _herself_.

And maybe she's painted an image of Chloe in her head that's different to the actual real-life Chloe Beale, because anybody can come across different over Facebook messages.

However, in the two weeks that she's been aware of Chloe Beale's being, she's managed to open up more than she has in her fifteen years of living. And Jesse – full-time prier – is her step-brother, yet Chloe – someone who Beca wasn't even aware existed a month ago – knows more about her than Jesse will ever know.

Which isn't really a competition, because she doesn't tell Jesse much anyway, but still.

She's been too busy thinking, avoiding, and looking at Chloe Beale to notice the red flags.

"What's the atomic number?"

She looks up to see Chloe staring down at her book with a furrowed brow, her pen trapped between her teeth. It's at that same moment that Beca's eyes decide to look down at Chloe's lips, that Chloe lifts her head up to look at Beca.

"Huh?"

"I said, what's the atomic number? Is it the number at the bottom?"

"No, it's, um…" Beca scoots closer to Chloe, so she can point to the correct number on her table. "It's the one at the top," she says, pointing to the number one on Hydrogen. "The number of protons. The number at the bottom is the atomic mass."

"Right," Chloe nods with a smile. "I knew that."

"Sure."

"Hey, what's your favorite element?"

"Oxygen, duh."

"Wow," Chloe laughs. "Should I be impressed that you knew that straight away without thinking about it?"

"I mean, it's kind of self-explanatory. We need oxygen to survive."

"We also need carbon dioxide to survive. And Hydrogen… and Carbon and Nitrogen, and–a lot of them, actually."

" _Okay,_ I get it," Beca smirks. "What's _your_ favorite element?"

"Titanium."

"Why?"

"It's my favorite song."

"Oh, come on."

"What?" Chloe laughs as Beca rolls her eyes, tapping her pen on her book.

"You can't pick it because it's your favorite song."

"Why not? It's a _really_ good song!"

"You… are…"

"What?"

"You're a conundrum wrapped in a riddle, m'lady."

"I like the sound of that."

Beca shakes her head with a breathy laugh.

Chloe Beale is a challenge, but she's kind of okay with that.

* * *

Beca's one of those people who likes to plan accordingly, and she always plans to do her homework on Saturdays, so she can spend Sundays just being her usual lazy self without having to worry about the consequences of not doing her homework.

But when Chloe asks her if she wants to come to her house to watch _Student Bodies_ – the movie that Beca has actually considered watching a few times in the past two weeks, because _clearly_ Chloe likes it – Beca agrees with a small smile and a nod of her head.

She's not really sure of much these days, but she's pretty sure that she sees Chloe's face light up just that little bit more when Beca agrees, as the two of them pack their stuff away.

She sends another text to her dad, telling him that she'll be home in a few hours because rehearsal time ran over – and it's a lie, but she's not about to go tell her dad that she's hanging out with Chloe Beale, because somehow that information will find its way to Jesse and she's not sure she's ready for him to know that she actually _listened_ to him when he was talking about Chloe.

It turns out that Chloe's car is in fact, not the bright pink beetle she had seen at the game. Chloe has a red Mini Cooper with two white racing stripes on the bonnet, and _of course_ Chloe Beale would have a Mini Cooper. Beca should have expected that.

The fact that she has one of those cars, paired with the size of her house, proves to Beca that Chloe's family is loaded.

It shouldn't intimidate her as much as it does, seeing as her father's house is also kind of big, but when she sees the copy of the Mona Lisa hanging in Chloe's living room, she feels like she's just walked into a palace. She knows it's not the real one, but still, it's intimidating, okay.

"You want a drink?"

"Um, no thank you."

"Make yourself at home, I'll just get the movie."

Beca smiles politely as Chloe skips away – _literally_ skips, like a fucking fourth grader, but it's adorable and just proves Beca's theory of Chloe being a little kid, so she lets it pass – and she stands there for a moment, wondering how the hell she even found herself here. That moment lasts about ten seconds, until she hears Chloe coming back downstairs again, and she looks around the room as she sits down on the couch.

She's in the middle fighting against sinking into it, when Chloe walks in with the DVD and sees her struggling. And if it wasn't for the fact that Beca feels like if she sinks further into this couch then she'll never make it out, then she'd be laughing along with Chloe. And she's pretty sure that if Chloe didn't start laughing at her, then she'd actually be convinced that she's gonna die – and that would be a pretty embarrassing way to go: death by drowning in a sofa – but Chloe doesn't seem as worried as she does, and she helps her out by grabbing her hand and pulling her as hard as she can.

"Maybe we'll sit on the floor," Chloe says with a giggle, and all Beca can do is nod.

Maybe the floor is good.

* * *

 ** _"_** ** _Why do they always run away from me? It's the galoshes. They're a dead giveaway. Why do I wear them? It isn't even raining!"_**

Beca smiles at Chloe laughing beside her, amused at the "killer" on the screen, who has not-so-secretly named himself "the breather." It's a lame movie, but watching Chloe laugh at the one-liners is kind of amusing, because Chloe has that type of laugh that's contagious, and Beca can't help but smile every time Chloe's body vibrates with amusement beside her.

The movie itself is dumb, and Beca stopped paying attention a while ago, and okay, maybe she laughed a little too loud at the "dead men tell no tales but they fart" comment from Nurse Krud, but she's an immature teenager, so who can blame her? Plus, Chloe laughed just as hard as she did, and of course she noticed the way that Chloe seemed to move a little closer to her when she saw that Beca was a little more comfortable as the movie progressed. That was cool too.

What's _not_ cool, is that Beca can't really seem to slow her heartrate down, due to Chloe being pressed so close against her. And it's not like there's no room, because Chloe's living room is the size of Narnia, but it still doesn't stop Chloe from being so close to her.

It's not her fault that she ends up watching Chloe instead of the movie.

Okay, maybe it is her fault.

(Duh, nobody is _making_ her watch Chloe. Maybe she just likes to look at pretty people.)

But it's Chloe's fault too, for being so damn pretty.

* * *

"It was a dream?"

"Shhh."

"No, wait…" Beca sits up, causing Chloe to move her head from where it found itself on Beca's shoulder. "What the hell? A dream? That's messed up!"

Chloe grins, shaking her head as she looks back at the screen, whispering, "shh, it isn't finished yet," as it shows the main character, Toby, waking up in the hospital.

Usually movies are predictable and cliché and dumb, and whatever other adjective Beca can think to describe them, but she can admit that she was _not_ expecting that.

Maybe it was Chloe's laughter and cuddling that kept her amused throughout the whole thing, but that doesn't matter; she still kind of enjoyed herself. So much so that she doesn't actually want to leave. But not leaving would result in questions from her dad, and questions from her dad would result in questions from Jesse, and she doesn't want to be dealing with that today when she's had such a great time with Chloe.

"Did you enjoy it?"

"I _enjoy_ chocolate cheesecake and making music. I don't _enjoy_ movies."

"You totally enjoyed it, didn't you?" Beca shakes her head, pushing herself off of Chloe's floor and stretching her back. "You enjoyed it!"

"Well, the company made it tolerable," she says, watching as Chloe stands up gracefully.

"Is that right?"

"I mean, I suppose there's worse ways to spend my Friday evenings."

"You wanna stay for dinner? My mom should be home soon and she makes the _best_ veggie lasagna."

"I, uh," Beca pauses, looking down at the ground as Chloe watches her.

"Or not." Chloe shakes her head. "We can go get chocolate cheesecake from the bakery down the street? I get discount because my mom is good friends with the woman who owns it."

"I think I better get going," Beca says, rubbing the back of her neck. "My dad'll be wondering where I am."

"Oh, that's cool too."

She tries not to notice how Chloe's facial expression changes, as if she's kind of disappointed by this. She'll see Chloe on Monday though, if Beca's actually willing to talk to her and not hide.

(There's a slight possibility that she might hide.)

"Do you want me to drive you home?"

She almost says yes, but she needs some time by herself for a while.

"Nah, it's good. I'm good."

"I'll see you later then," Chloe smiles as she opens the front door. "Beca Mitchell."

"See you later, Chloe Beale," Beca says, nodding at her before walking out of the door and down the porch step.

 _Chloe Beale_ , she thinks to herself.

(Maybe she won't hide.)

* * *

The week after the two of them hung out, they find themselves on the soccer field on Friday evening doing homework again, after her and Benji have sat through yet another grueling rehearsal. And Beca tells herself not to get used to it, because no matter how good this may feel now, she doesn't want to end up disappointed when Chloe realizes that Beca isn't what she expected, despite them being friends for almost a month now.

Yet, when Chloe asks her if she wants to come watch her train on Saturday, Beca finds herself agreeing without even having to try to convince herself that it's a bad idea.

Maybe it's not a bad idea.

It's cool. Totally cool. She can bring her homework with her while she's watching Chloe train. Kill two birds with one stone and all that.

And by the time Saturday rolls around, she almost bails. Almost. But the thought of Chloe being disappointed about her not showing up kind of changes her mind. Plus, Chloe Facebook messaged her in the morning asking her if she was still coming to watch her, and she figured that she has nothing better to do (except Chem homework).

Damn Chloe, with her stupid need to be so damn adorable all the time, even through Facebook messages.

So maybe taking her Chemistry homework to watch Chloe train on the field isn't the coolest thing she's done in her life. But she _does_ have a lot of work to do, and soccer kind of bores her, but she's doing this for Chloe, so she figures that finishing her Chem homework is better than clawing her own eyes out or falling asleep and possibly being a perfect target for a soccer ball to hit.

The only reason she's here is because she – for some reason – does _not_ know how to say no to Chloe Beale.

Obviously there are other people watching the Bellas though, which is why, as she approaches the field, she rethinks the whole 'doing Chemistry homework instead of watching them' thing. Because if that doesn't scream "I am a huge fucking nerd," she doesn't know what will. But she's here now, and she's never been one to care what other people think about her. So she pulls out her Chemistry book, smirking at the small smiley face that Chloe had drawn on the corner of it last Friday, and opens it to the right page.

She's not too far away from the soccer field – she's not really close to it either – but she still hears Chloe shouting her name, and she looks up to see her waving as the team starts to pass the ball between each other, all of them yelling things that Beca's not quite sure make sense.

She also notices Aubrey, with her perfect ponytail and her long legs, and the number 20 on her soccer shirt, glaring at her every now and again, but she ignores that.

It's a pretty boring day all round, because all the team seems to be doing is passing the ball between each other and sometimes kicking it at the targets on the nets that they had set up – something more boring than an actual game. That, and Beca doesn't get much of her homework done, because every time she looks down at it, she gets the urge to look at Chloe again. Which is completely reasonable, because Chloe is a nice person to look at. Aesthetically, of course.

She's still not even sure why the hell she's here.

It could possibly be something to do with the redhead smiling at her from the other side of the field.

Possibly.

* * *

She settles into a pretty easy rhythm.

(A rhythm that Beca is content with, especially if it means that she gets to see Chloe more.)

The rhythm is simple, really. She watches the Bellas train on Saturdays (she leaves Mondays and Thursdays out, because she has English and Physics study groups after school on those days.) And she sometimes attends the odd soccer game on weekends with Jesse and Benji, up until they suddenly don't have any games anymore. And on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, she meets Chloe after the hour she spends with Benji at rehearsals, and they sit on the field and do their homework.

This continues until the musical she's helping produce (yes, she's been promoted to executive producer) is starting to finally take shape, and she spends whatever free time she has either with Chloe Beale, or psyching herself up to _meet_ Chloe Beale.

Beca likes to think it's only an academic rhythm, but she knows it's not. That many months spent with Chloe is bound to escalate into something more than just 'classmates' no matter how much Beca wants to deny it.

Her and Chloe kind of get lost sometimes and forget what they're even supposed to be doing in the first place – _homework_ , Beca has to remind herself more often than not (a _lot_ more often than not lately). They're only supposed to be helping each other with _homework_. Which is a rule that she made only _herself_ aware of two weeks after they first started hanging out, but it still counts as a legitimate rule if it means that it'll stop her from thinking about Chloe Beale any more than she needs to.

Chloe had asked her one afternoon before Winter break, in the middle of them doing Bio homework, if she could play some more of her mixes, and without even thinking, Beca had agreed to show her. She wasn't quite expecting Chloe to love them as much as she did, bursting out into song on the middle of the soccer field, and singing along to almost every single mix. She's a very enthusiastic person, and Beca should've never agreed.

Agreeing only led to Chloe expecting more, and the amount of mixes Beca was making with Chloe in mind was already in the double digits, and that was _before_ Chloe had started to suggest some ideas for her. So making mixes for someone, no matter how special that person may be, isn't quite what Beca _does_. But Chloe's face when Beca had showed her a mix she suggested – David Guetta's 'Titanium' and Zedd's 'Clarity' – made Beca forget those stupid rules she set in the first place.

Again, another red flag – Beca seemed to be collecting them _daily_ – but it was okay because they still managed to do their homework on the days that they hung out, no matter how long Chloe's outbursts of singing went on for, so their rhythm was still semi-academic.

(She didn't tell Chloe that she stayed up for nine hours making the mix, hoping to get it as perfect as Chloe Beale herself, but judging by the look on Chloe's face when Beca played it on her phone, she saw just how much Chloe loved it. That look on her face was rewarding enough, without needing any awkward explanations.)

The rhythm lasts approximately five months before Beca can't deny her crush on Chloe Beale any longer.

Sometimes, when it's just the two of them hanging out after school, Beca wonders if she loves Chloe Beale.

Which is ridiculous, because she only turned sixteen years old in January, for God's sake. She's too young to be in love.

She doesn't know what she feels most of the time. If it's not love then it's definitely the potential for love.

They don't hang out _much_ outside of school grounds, save for the odd occasion Chloe invites Beca to her house to watch a movie – much to Beca's dismay – and sometimes they order takeout while doing homework in Chloe's living room.

(Beca's been on the receiving end of her dad's "why are you coming home so late, do I have to put a tracker in your phone?" rants a few times, but Chloe is worth it. Plus, she knows that her dad wouldn't _actually_ do that. All she needs to say is that she wanted to be alone, and he somehow gets it.)

But lately she doesn't want to be alone, despite the fact that being alone is one of her favorite hobbies. She just kind of wants to be with Chloe, and Chloe only. Watching a movie isn't the same with Jesse, no matter how hard she pretends it's Chloe sitting next to her. Jesse is too tall and bulky for Beca to even pretend that he's Chloe, so it's not as convincing.

The soccer field seems to be their place, though.

A place where they get along like a house on fire, where they can act like idiots together, and where Beca isn't afraid of loving her.

Outside of the soccer field is a completely different situation though, and Beca doesn't even tell Benji or Jesse what she's doing on those days after school, and especially not that she's with Chloe Beale.

(She's not ashamed, she just doesn't want things to change.)

And it's surprising that they manage to last so long in this rhythm – sure, sometimes they miss days; sometimes Chloe doesn't show up, or they have to cancel because of other plans – but it's their rhythm and Beca is content.

She's content with loving Chloe in the confines of the soccer field too, because sometimes if she uses her imagination the right way, it's like Chloe loves her back.

She doesn't even know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

She hasn't seen many examples of love, or what she supposes is love. Her parents loved each other, up until the moment they suddenly didn't anymore. At least, that's what Beca used to think. Now, she kind of realizes that falling out of love with someone is a process; the same as falling in love with someone is a process.

Love can make you feel like you're as high as the clouds, and sometimes it can make you feel like you're six feet under. To Beca, love is sitting on a soccer field doing homework with Chloe Beale, wishing that time will stop just so they can spend more of it with each other.

She realizes now, that she's kinda screwed.

* * *

" _And we're rolling_ …"

"Chloe."

" _Rolling_ …"

"Stop…"

"… _ROLLING ON A RIVER!_ "

Chloe doesn't have the worst voice in the world, but it's still kind of embarrassing when all the Bellas' heads turn to look their way when Chloe carries on singing as loud as she can, not bothering to stop when Beca throws a few chips at her.

"So it's Valentine's Day next week."

Beca looks up to see Chloe pulling some grass out of the field, and her hand immediately moves over to tap Chloe's, because no matter how cute Chloe's nervous fiddling is, she's not about to go letting her ruin the soccer pitch.

"What about it?" Beca asks, and Chloe smiles at her.

When she looks back down at her Math homework, the numbers all seem to be jumbling together more than usual, and she has to close her eyes for a second to focus.

 _That's nerves, dummy_ , her body tells her, but she doesn't listen.

"Have you got any plans? Any secret admirers?"

"Now they wouldn't be a secret if I _knew_ , would they?"

"Ha, _ha_. You know what I mean."

She smiles, putting her book down on the grass before leaning back with her arms resting behind her.

"If you count ordering pizza and teaching myself how to play the harmonica as _plans_ , then yes, I do have plans."

"The harmonica? What happened to learning the drums?"

"Eh, that was last week. Plus, my dad won't let me have a drum set."

"What's it gonna be next week, the tuba?"

"Possibly." Beca smiles.

Just as Chloe opens her mouth to say something, Aubrey's voice shouting Chloe's name from the soccer nets resonates across the field like some sort of Army General. And Chloe does that thing where she says sorry with her eyes, and Beca really wishes she wouldn't do that. It's hard enough as it is to remind herself that this crush she has on Chloe will never work out, without her having to be so damn cute all the time.

The rest of the day, again, is spent doing her Math homework and watching the Bellas train.

Despite not really wanting to make too many friends, Beca's learned a lot about the Bellas over the past few months. Aubrey and Chloe are both strikers, and sometimes Aubrey can be a bit demanding despite Chloe being the captain. Chloe says she's okay with that though, because it's nice to take the pressure off sometimes.

Ashley, Cynthia Rose, Stacie, and Emily are midfielders. Emily's mom, Katherine Junk, is the soccer coach, and Emily is pretty much the whole reason for Chloe being the captain, because Chloe had mentioned that she was pretty much Emily's adopted mom when they first started high school, and she grew kind of attached after Chloe taught her everything she needed to know about soccer (well, everything that her mother hadn't already taught her).

Maybe it was a little bit of an obsession, but Chloe said that Emily is sweet and she wanted to repay Chloe back for being so nice to her by electing her captain. All of the Bellas seemed to agree, and the former captain, Alice, handed over the captain band when she graduated last year. Sometimes Chloe thinks that Aubrey is jealous of her captain band, but Aubrey is more of a captain than she is, so it doesn't really matter. She'll gladly hand it over if they ever took another vote.

Jessica, Lily, Denise, and Flo (the newest addition) are all defense, and are pretty much half – or maybe nine tenths – of the reason why Fat Amy, the goalkeeper, doesn't particularly _do_ much. Apparently even standing up and walking a total of about 8 yards is too much cardio for Amy, but the Bellas are kind of really freakin' awesome, so they hardly ever let the opposing team get the ball to Amy's net anyway. Plus, if they ever _do_ get it near the goal, Amy just runs towards them yelling about how she's wrestled a crocodile and a dingo simultaneously before, and scares them away.

(Beca would call that _cheating_ , but Amy calls it deflecting with partial trickery.

It's the same thing.)

It's not often that the Bellas really talk to Beca, which is fine. She's not really a fan of making small talk anyway, especially with jocks, about things she's not really educated on.

(She still stands by her statement that soccer is boring. Except when Chloe Beale is playing, obviously.)

She's gotten used to their back-and-forth banter though, and she especially likes the conversations between Stacie and Amy. She never really knows what to expect from the two of them, which is why she finds them so entertaining, and they take everybody's mind off of the fact that they're all hot and sweaty and gross, especially when it's a warm day, so that's good too.

Beca doesn't really mind a hot and sweaty Chloe Beale, but she obviously doesn't _admit_ that to herself.

"Okay girls, take five!"

There's a chorus of cheers from the Bellas as Beca lifts her head up to see Chloe already jogging towards her. She smiles up at her – something she finds herself doing a lot lately – and throws her towel up at her before she settles down on the grass next to her.

"Ugh, you're all sweaty."

Chloe grins, still breathless from running around as she wipes her face with the towel. She moves closer to Beca, and Beca flinches as Chloe holds her hand up, wiping sweat on Beca's cheek with a mischievous grin.

She pushes Chloe's hand off of her immediately, shouting "dude, that's nasty!" as Chloe laughs at her. And she should be _completely_ grossed out by it because _duh_ , Chloe just wiped her fucking sweat on her for God's sake, but she's laughing like a little kid again and it's kind of hard to stay mad at that face.

"Hey, so it's game season and we have a game in two weeks, if you want to come."

"Game season?" Beca asks, scrubbing at her cheek with her sleeve as she looks at Chloe. "What is that? I thought you just played whenever you wanted?"

"Nope, we have different seasons when we play. A fall season and a spring season."

"But… you… played a game in December."

"That was for charity," Chloe laughs. "It was just for fun. So you wanna come?"

So _that's_ why she hasn't been invited to any games lately.

"Sure, of course."

"Awes."

"Awes." Beca repeats, as Chloe picks up her book.

She watches Chloe's face as she reads over Beca's answers, as if working them out in her head.

Beca learned that Chloe is surprisingly very good at Math, and immediately – without even thinking, really – demanded that Chloe be her tutor. That was months ago, and Beca can see that she's been improving dramatically, which just goes to show exactly how _good_ Chloe Beale is.

It's kind of not fair.

Neither is the pounding in her heart when Chloe leans over and kisses her on the cheek, before standing up and jogging away to the rest of the group, after telling her to carry on doing her homework.

And she hears Aubrey ask Chloe "what the hell was _that_?", but she's kind of in too much of a daze to really care about anything right now.

* * *

"Again, take it from the top."

Beca places a bottle of water in front of Benji as she sits down next to him, looking up at the stage to see the girl who plays Cady – some Senior named Jennifer Mendes who's been the lead of Barden's school musicals four times in a row now – rehearsing the Jingle Bell Rock dance with the three other girls, who Beca has totally forgotten the names of.

(It's easier just calling them Cady, Regina, Gretchen, and Karen.)

"How's it going?" she asks him as she pulls out her phone, sighing when she sees that there's no new notifications.

"Good," Benji says with a smile, chancing a glance at Beca before looking back up at the stage. "They've pretty much nailed the dance routine. Have you got the sheet music?"

"Oh, yeah," she reaches down and pulls the binder of music out of her backpack, passing it over to Benji.

She had been promoted (again) to piano player, because the music teacher who was originally helping out is on maternity leave, and the replacement teacher is about as tone deaf as a brick wall, and Beca has been playing the piano since she was ten, so it only made sense.

"Laura, to your right a little bit!" Benji shouts, and it's strange, Beca thinks, that Benji still sounds so sweet when he's yelling. He's like a Chihuahua, only much less aggressive and yappy.

She checks her phone again. Nothing.

Of course, that's the moment Benji decides to look at her again, and he smiles as he waits for Beca to notice him looking at her. And she _does_ notice; takes in the cheeky grin and the look of amusement on his face, as he asks, "anyone important?"

And Chloe is important, more important than anything, which is the whole problem here.

She concluded that Chloe must be sick, because she wasn't in Chemistry this morning, nor was she in any other lessons they shared together, _and_ she didn't join Beca at lunch.

Beca has a feeling that she won't be on the soccer field after this hour is over too.

Chloe _is_ important, but she shakes her head when Benji says, "I'll take that as a yes," and she tells him that it's nothing, and diverts his attention to the music sheets she had just spent fifteen minutes printing out.

"Any plans for Valentine's Day?" Benji asks her, and she shakes her head.

"You?"

"I think I'm gonna ask Emily out."

She smiles, wondering why he's left it until after school to ask. She doesn't pry for any more though, not really wanting to discuss Valentine's Day plans when the one she wants to actually _be_ with isn't here.

She tries to ignore the way her phone feels like it's vibrating every five minutes, but that's mostly her hope once again letting her down.

Chloe hasn't answered any of her texts, and that kinda sucks.

She goes to the soccer pitch anyway, just in case Chloe happens to be there.

It's a long shot, but she has nothing better to do.

Benji had offered to drive her home again, and you'd think he would've got the idea by now, seeing as every time he asks, Beca has to think of another excuse as to why she's turning the ride down. She's been at Barden for almost six months now, and she always walks to and from school, even though Jesse has a car. She likes to find new places, seeing as she'll be here for another three years at least, and sure, she still doesn't _fully_ know her way around the school, despite Chloe's tours, but she has a feeling that nobody does.

She walks past the field, not surprised to see it empty, and carries on her journey home feeling like the backpack on her back is much heavier than it usually is, weighing her shoulders down and making her feel like she's sinking.

Which is stupid, because it's not like she's done anything for Chloe to be mad at her. Chloe's not mad at her, she's just sick.

She thinks about taking a detour, to the small clearing in the woods that she had found a few weeks after she moved in with her dad – a place that nobody else seems to go; a place she has deemed her getaway – but she decides against it, because the clouds are looking rather dark and horror movie-like, and she doesn't want to get caught in a thunderstorm.

Plus, that getaway is a place to go when she needs to think, and she doesn't need to think, because if she thinks then she'll come up with endless reasons as to why Chloe wasn't at school today, and she doesn't need that.

Jesse is sitting on the porch step when she gets back home at six, and he stands up as she approaches the gate, watching her as if he's waiting for some sort of explanation.

About what, Beca's not sure.

"What?" she asks him, not really in the mood for his mind games.

"You're home late."

"I got distracted by a puppy on the way home."

He rolls his eyes at her sarcasm, watching as she approaches him.

"You're sad."

"I'm always sad."

It comes across as a much more demoralizing whisper than her usual, self-deprecating jokes, and she notices the lingering sympathetic look that Jesse gives her as she walks up the steps into the house.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Nope."

"Mom and Warren have gone out for Valentine's Day. They told me to tell you there's leftover kebab in the microwave."

"Kay."

"Hey," Beca closes her eyes and counts to three, before opening them and turning around.

And Jesse is standing there with that meerkat-looking face, and it's annoying, because she wants nothing more to just tell him everything. About how she thinks she's crushing on Chloe, and sometimes she thinks she might love her, and how it doesn't feel right because she's so used to _not_ feeling things towards people. But Chloe brings out the best in her, and she doesn't want time to pass whenever they're together, and all the other cliché shit that comes along when one starts to fall for a girl.

Instead, she says, "what?" as she takes her phone out of her pocket again – mostly out of instinct – to see the notification bar, once again, empty.

"This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Chloe wasn't at school today, does it?"

"What? No." she looks up at him. "How did you–?" She shakes her head. "What?"

"Bec, come on," he laughs, crossing his arms. "You really think your friendship with Chloe is some sort of secret?" She knows it's not a secret, because she knows that Jesse has seen them together. "You two are practically the power couple of the school. The jock and the nerd. It's like a typical high school romance."

She shakes her head again, and she can tell that she has a dumbfounded look on her face, but she's kind of too busy trying to keep her cool to notice.

"Jesse, that's not–we're not… Jesus Christ, not everything is like it is in the _movies_."

"Hey, I never said that," he holds both hands up in surrender, and Beca rolls her eyes. "I'm just letting you know that I know. I know you like her. You're practically attached at the hip at school, and you're always at her house. Plus, the way you were looking at her when she gave you that bracelet for your birthday last month? I felt like I was intruding, and I was at the other side of the cafeteria."

"Wait, you've _known_? The whole time? Does dad know?"

She doesn't notice that she's practically just confessed to Jesse that she _does_ have a crush on Chloe.

"No, I obviously cover for you. You know what he's like, he'll invite her to try his meatloaf and she'll never want to see you ever again."

"That's reassuring," she mumbles, but she's kind of relieved. Jesse's been covering for her this whole time – he's been _aware_ the whole time – and Beca wonders if this is why he hasn't been so annoying lately. Because he knows that Beca likes Chloe.

He probably also feels sorry for her too. Probably knows that she'll never get the chance to be with Chloe.

That kinda sucks. More than her Chloe-less Friday.

"Do you love her?"

And Beca really wants this conversation to be over, but she kind of owes Jesse, so she just sighs as she walks into the living room and collapses onto the couch.

"She's really cool and she's good at Math."

"But you _like_ her, right? And she likes you?"

"She…" she shrugs her shoulders, playing with the chipped nail polish on her thumb. "She's Chloe."

"I've known Chloe since middle school, I can totally hook you up–"

"–Jesse, gross! I don't want to have _sex_ with her, _Jesus_. It's just a stupid crush, it'll go away."

She knows it's a lie, and judging by the look on Jesse's face, he does too.

She doesn't really want to talk about it though, so she asks him to turn the TV on as she sinks into the couch, and she's relieved when he doesn't push for any more information.

* * *

That night, she wakes up to a tapping sound on her window.

It takes her a while to notice, but when she eventually sits up in bed, she almost shits herself when she sees someone's face pressed against the window, nose squished against it as the condensation from their breathing covers most of their face.

And she would do something to alert the rest of the house, like scream or blow the whistle she keeps at the side of her bed for emergencies, but she notices, after actually looking at them properly, that it's not a murderer or a burglar.

There's only one person in the world who has eyes like that.

She throws the covers off of herself and rushes to the window, sliding it open and leaning down in front of her face.

"Hi, Beca Mitchell."

"Hey, Chloe Beale. Um, what are you doing here?"

"Why, I'm here to rescue the damsel in distress of course."

She shakes her head, kind of wondering if this is a dream. There's no way in hell she would've guessed that Chloe Beale would ever turn up to her house at – she turns to look at the digital clock on her bedside table – 12:03AM on a Friday.

"Seriously, it's midnight, what's going on?"

"It's Valentine's Day. You said you were learning the harmonica so I figured you'd be finished by now."

"I… I wasn't," she breathes out a laugh. "Chloe, I wasn't _actually_ learning to play the harmonica."

"You mean I could've shown up at your door earlier like a normal person?" Chloe grins. "Now where's the fun in that?"

"I can't believe you're real sometimes."

Chloe smiles, but her eyes widen when the porch light turns on. And before Beca can even react, Chloe makes her way across the branch, and slides into Beca's bedroom, her feet hardly even making a noise when she jumps down.

"We missed Valentine's Day," she whispers, "so this is like, an anti-Valentine's Day. Well… night. Nice shorts."

Beca looks down at her pajama shorts – Spiderman, _obviously_ – and blushes slightly, but it's too dark in the room to notice, hopefully. And she wants to say no, she really does. But Chloe has just been sitting on a tree branch outside her bedroom window at midnight, and now Chloe Beale is in her _room_ , and her dad and Sheila could come home at any minute, so the longer she stands here looking like a lost puppy, the more she'll convince herself that this is a bad idea.

She doesn't want to convince herself though, so she tells Chloe that she'll just get some pants on, before quietly rushing away to her closet.

She pulls out a pair of black jeans – or maybe they're dark blue – and a grey hoodie, looking to see if Chloe is watching her. Fortunately, she isn't, and she takes her shorts off, throwing them haphazardly behind her before changing.

Chloe is sat on the window ledge tapping a beat on the wall when Beca is done. And as she approaches the window, the smile that Chloe gives her is almost enough to make her forget what they're actually doing right now.

"People actually do this?"

"Yeah, exciting isn't it?"

"Um," she looks down over Chloe's body at the drop between her and the ground, gulping. Sure, the tree branch practically runs into her bedroom window and it's easy to climb up and down it, but it's still kind of scary. " _Terrifying_ , is more of an accurate word to describe this."

"Beca Mitchell is scared?"

"Shut up, I'm not scared. I'm fine. Now scoot, and let me out."

She watches Chloe climb out of the window and down the tree, with so much grace that Beca's afraid to even _try_ to imitate it. Chloe is always a ball of energy, but she moves with such perfect elegance and precision, like a ballet dancer perfecting their last dance, or a butterfly floating through a field of flowers.

Beca's never been good with comparing people to things, but she always finds something to compare Chloe Beale to. They may not be the best comparisons, but they make sense to her.

Chloe makes sense to her.

Chloe, it turns out, knows _exactly_ where they're going, because she leads Beca to her Mini Cooper that she has parked up the street, and tells her not to ask any questions – Beca almost makes a comment about her driving into the woods to murder her, but that's way too cliché, and not at all like Chloe. It does surprise her, however, when Chloe pulls up in the school parking lot, right next to the soccer field.

"What are we doing at school?" She wants to ask Chloe why she wasn't at school today, but she figures that's not important right now. If Chloe wants to tell her then she'll tell her.

"I'm surprised you managed to last this long without asking any questions," Chloe says, opening her car door and getting out, not answering Beca.

They find themselves on the soccer field, and the grass is still kind of damp because of a light shower of rain earlier on, but Chloe has a picnic blanket, and she places it down for the two of them to lay on.

Beca still feels a little dampness on her butt when she sits down, but she doesn't complain. Especially when Chloe lays down next to her, closer than she usually would, due to the blanket being quite small. And she almost forgets entirely about the moisture of the grass, when she feels the warmth of Chloe's hand grazing her wrist as she pulls her down to lay beside her.

She swears she feels Chloe's pinky curl around her own, but she's kind of too numb in the moment to feel anything right now.

"They're pretty, right?" Chloe asks, nodding – as best as she can while laid down – up at the stars.

"They're certainly something."

"I wonder how many there are." Chloe says, pointing up with her finger. She starts to count, moving her finger every time she does, and Beca smiles as she watches her.

It's impossible to count every star in the sky, but obviously Chloe tries.

It's such a _Chloe_ thing to do.

 _I don't need to see the stars as long as I can see you_ , Beca wants to tell her, but the words get caught in her throat.

Instead, she says "you're _so_ weird", when Chloe tells her that she lost count and starts counting again.

She doesn't think she'll ever have the courage to tell Chloe Beale exactly how much she means to her, but it's still nice to pretend.

They are on their field, after all.

Their field where sometimes Chloe loves Beca back.

"Have you ever seen a shooting star?" Chloe asks, turning to look at her. She's given up on counting, it seems, because she drops her hand down to her side again, her other one still resting against Beca's.

"A few times."

The thing about Beca Mitchell, is that she's never quite understood emotions. It's not that she doesn't feel them because oh, she does. She feels them way too much, especially since meeting Chloe Beale. But there's always one particular emotion – she used to call it love, but now she thinks it's just a dull ache in the bottom of her heart – that she's never seemed to be able to wrap her head around.

It's obviously a serious feeling, because it makes her heart feel like it's doing backflips, and it makes her stomach feel like it's about to take off, and it makes her shake with anticipation, and it makes her skin burn every time Chloe is near her.

Chloe is always warm.

(Or maybe Beca is just always cold.)

It's a bittersweet feeling, and she just goes with it. There's nothing else to do than give in to it, really.

When Chloe asks her if she's ever wished on a shooting star, Beca tells her no. She's never found anything worth making a wish for. She doesn't tell her that if a shooting star – a falling rock, an asteroid, whatever people call them – bolted across the sky right now, she'd wish that Chloe loved her back, wholly and completely.

She thinks it, though. _Oh_ , she thinks it.

"I saw a shooting star when I was eight and I wished that I could meet Justin Timberlake. I never got to meet him."

"Maybe the universe thought you deserved better."

She can practically feel Chloe's smile aimed at her, burning an imaginary hole in the side of her face, but she keeps her eyes on the sky above them.

"You weren't at school today."

"My guinea pig died."

Beca almost laughs, but Chloe sounds serious, and it's in that same moment that Beca decides that Chloe is so much more than a little kid in a sixteen year old's body. She always has been.

"What was its name?"

"Edgar."

"What, like Edgar Allan Poe?"

"No, like Edgar Degas."

"I don't know who that is."

Chloe tells her that Edgar Degas is her favorite artist, and Beca tells Chloe that _she's_ her favorite artist.

Because Beca has seen Chloe's art, and it surprised her when she learned that she's amazing at it. And not the type of amazing that you tell someone they are when they draw you a picture or make them a mix. The type of amazing that, when you look at their work, makes you feel things. Makes you feel like you're part of the painting, or that you can just jump into it.

Chloe had painted Beca a picture of the two of them on soccer pitch for her birthday a month ago, and had given it to her in the cafeteria, along with the black studded bracelet – that Beca hasn't taken off since, save for when she showers and goes to bed.

And she knows how much art means to Chloe. Almost as much as music means to Beca. She's never really explained to Beca how she got into art, or how she got so good at it, or _why_ she got into it, but she's shown Beca her paintings and her drawings, and sometimes she draws little pictures in Beca's book when they do homework together, and Beca figures that she doesn't really need an explanation.

"I once had a hamster when I was like, seven." Beca tells her. "I called him Snickerdoodle."

"Snickerdoodle?"

"I was a child obsessed with sugar, okay."

Chloe giggles, arching her back to get more comfy before she turns to lay on her side, and when Beca turns to look at her, the smile on Chloe's face is enough to make her forget about everything else in the world, if only for a few seconds.

Chloe Beale is Beca's favorite piece of art.

* * *

"Is this gonna be one of those Paper Towns moments," Beca says that night, as they stand under the tree in front of her window, "where I won't see you at school tomorrow and I'll have to road trip across the country to find you?"

"Nope, you'll see me." Chloe tells her. "I'll be the one yelling your name across the parking lot, as per usual."

" _Joy_."

"Don't pretend you don't love it."

 _I love you_ , Beca wants to tell her, but that would be a dumb thing to do. Instead, she just shakes her head.

"Goodnight, Beca Mitchell." Chloe whispers.

"Good _morning_ , Chloe Beale."

When Chloe smiles at her, Beca thinks that tonight may have been the best night of her life.

* * *

And Chloe _is_ there on Monday morning in the parking lot.

Only, she's not waving at Beca and shouting her name like she usually is.

She's making out with some dude against her car, and Beca almost throws up, almost runs away, almost collapses. But Chloe somehow notices her out of the corner of her eye, and she smiles and waves at her, and the boy turns around, and it's Tom, the idiot she punched at the beginning of the year for making fun of her shoes.

She didn't recognize him because he's had a haircut and he doesn't look nearly as douchey as he used to do, and Beca has the familiar urge to punch him again.

Instead, she smiles at Chloe and carries on walking, through the school doors and to her locker, where she proceeds to try to catch her breath and tell herself over and over, that there's nothing to be so worked up about.

Chloe isn't her property, and she has absolutely no reason to be jealous.

Except she _is_ jealous, and admitting that to herself is almost as hard as getting the picture of Chloe and Tom _kissing_ out of her head.

And it's not like she can avoid Chloe, because – as if the universe is conspiring against her – she shares practically all her classes with her, and over the past few months, they came to some sort of mutual agreement at one point to always sit next to each other.

So when Chloe sits down next to her in the Chemistry lab, a smile on her face as she pulls her books out of her bag, Beca feels like running away. Because there's no doubt Chloe is going to gush about Tom, and his perfect (stupid) face, and his perfect ( _stupid_ ) kissing techniques, and his perfect (stupid, stupid, stupid) self.

"Hey." She says, tapping Beca's arm, and Beca drops her pencil as she turns to look at her. "Two men walk into a bar–"

"–Chloe, I'm not in the mood–"

"–Two men walk into a bar," she interrupts, ignoring Beca, "and one of them orders H20. The other one says, 'I'll have H20, too.'" She pauses, a smile playing on her lips as Beca waits for the punchline. "The second man dies."

It takes her a second to understand, but eventually she gets it, rolling her eyes as Chloe laughs, telling Beca that she's been waiting to tell her that since this morning.

 _You could've if you hadn't been making out with Stupid McDoucheface_ , she wants to tell her, but she doesn't.

Instead, she calls her a dork.

She spends most of the hour making words out of the different elements of the periodic table, nodding along to whatever Chloe says, and trying not to groan every time Chloe tells her a Chemistry joke. It's like any usual lesson, but knowing that Chloe has a boyfriend somehow makes it worse to sit through.

She turns around to look at Jesse at one point, and he's already looking at her, and she knows what he's thinking.

How unfortunate, that she has finally found someone worth loving, only to have it thrown back in her face.

And as luck goes, Beca's never really been one to have much of the _good_ side of it; only the bad side. So when Mr. Lawrence hands out a sheet of questions, telling the class that he hopes they all studied for the practice test, she figures that the universe is definitely not on her side today, because she had totally forgotten.

She's never forgotten about a test in her life.

And it doesn't help that every problem on the test turns into _her_ problem; reminding her of Chloe Beale no matter how hard she tries to ignore it.

 _1\. Elements on the periodic table are ordered according to…_

a) Their atomic mass  
b) Their atomic numbers  
c) How much Chloe Beale doesn't love you

 _2\. Which of the following is not a characteristic of nonmetals?_

a) Malleable  
b) Brittle  
c) Bright blue eyes

 _3\. Which statement is correct?_

a) Elements always exist as pairs of atoms called molecules  
b) Elements and compounds can exist as molecules  
c) Chloe Beale is dating someone that isn't you.

 _4\. Approximately how many elements are there?_

a) 100  
b) 4  
c) Who cares about elements, Chloe Beale is dating somebody that isn't you.

 _5\. How many times can you tell yourself that you're okay until you start to believe it?_

a) 7  
b) 9 billion  
c) Surprise, you can't

Of course, all of the answers that stand out to Beca are (c), no matter how hard she tries to consider the others.

They're like a punch in the face.

She gets a D on the test.

She's never gotten a D in her life.

* * *

Two days later, while she's on the phone with Luke, listening to him telling her his thoughts on the new mashup she'd uploaded to Tumblr, a BØRNS and PVRIS mix she'd spent five hours on, she hears a quiet knock on the door. She tells Luke she'll call him back, and she tells whoever it is to come in as she sits up in bed, and she's surprised to see that it's Sheila.

"Hey," she says, peaking round the door, and Beca wonders if she's come to shout at her for not eating dinner earlier. But then she says "I have a Chloe Beale here", and she opens the door fully to reveal Chloe.

And she's smiling, of course, in that way that makes Beca's insides scream at her to run away, but she tells Chloe to come in, ignoring the speed of her heartbeat when Chloe makes eye contact, and Sheila shuts the door with a small smile as if she _knows_.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asks casually (although she's not sure it comes off as casual; more like strained and anxious) as Chloe picks up her headphones and starts to stroke the worn out sticker on one of the cups with her index finger.

"You've been really weird the past few days," Chloe tells her, always one to get straight to the point, and Beca just shakes her head.

"I'm always weird."

"But not like… you're a different weird. A sad kind of weird."

"Chlo, I'm fine."

When Chloe looks at her, she knows she doesn't believe her.

"You look like a tiger cub who's about to get turned into a fur coat."

"How long did it take you to think of that one?"

Chloe smiles. "Well, there was 'You look like Sandra Lee after burning her stuffed mushrooms', and 'You look like someone took away your special edition copy of Existentialism and Humanism.' I decided to go with the cub because it's very _you_."

"I would've personally gone with Sartre."

"You don't like Sartre." Beca shakes her head, wondering how the hell Chloe got to know her so well. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"I can't," she breathes out, shaking her head as she looks down at her phone.

"Why not?"

"Because if I start talking, I'm afraid I'll never stop." _Just like falling_ , she thinks. "Don't want to reveal all my dirty secrets now, do I?"

She hasn't stopped falling, and she doesn't think she ever will.

Instead of explaining any further, she says "So Tom Howard, huh?" trying her best to keep the malice out of her voice.

And then Chloe goes on to tell her about how she was hanging out with the Bellas on Sunday, the day after anti-Valentine's night – _their_ anti-Valentine's night – and Amy had brought Bumper along, and Bumper had brought Tom along, and Tom had kissed her as they all sat around a small campfire they had made in Stacie's back yard, and now they're boyfriend and girlfriend, she guesses.

"You _guess_?"

"Well yeah, I mean…" she pauses, rolling her lips together before shrugging, "it's only been like, a few days. But we hold hands and kiss, so I think we're boyfriend and girlfriend."

 _I could do that_ , Beca wants to say. _I could easily do that._

"That's really cool," she says instead. "But you're my best friend and it's like, a _rule_ that I have to kill him if he hurts you."

"Best friend?" Chloe asks with a grin, and Beca smiles, standing up to fetch her laptop from her desk.

"Wanna listen to my newest m–"

"–Yes!" Chloe interrupts, and Beca smiles again.

No matter how upset she may be, she still can't find it in herself to be annoyed when Chloe interrupts her.

She shows Chloe the mix, and like usual, Chloe tells her that it's the best one she's ever made, and she gushes about how proud she is, and blah blah blah; says things that doesn't help this whole 'being in love with her best friend' thing Beca has going on. They listen to some music and talk for a while, mostly about the fact that summer break is creeping up, and they're going to be juniors in a few months, and Beca can feel herself slowly falling even harder when Chloe asks her, with a tinge of sadness to her voice, if they'll still hang out over the summer.

Of course they will, though.

There's no question.

They listen to music until Chloe stops the song while she's scrolling through Beca's albums on her phone, and sees that she has several musical soundtracks; RENT, Spring Awakening, Wicked, If/Then, and some that Chloe says she's never heard of.

"You're a musical nerd?"

"Shut up."

"How come you like musicals but not movies?"

"Musicals are different," Beca says. "They're not predictable like movies are."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah."

"We can watch a movie musical. Then both of us can be satisfied. Have you seen The Last Five Years? It's supposed to be good."

" _Oh_ , are you sure you're ready for that kind of emotional trauma?"

She obviously doesn't tell Chloe that she played Cathy in her old school's musical last year, because that would be _crazy_.

Instead, she watches Chloe as she reaches over and picks Beca's phone up, and she says, "ugh, it's almost nine thirty," and Beca almost asks Chloe to stay, but she figures that would be a bad idea. She doesn't have a spare bed, and she's not sure sharing a bed with Chloe Beale will help her ever-growing feelings for her.

"We can watch it tomorrow," Beca says, and Chloe smiles.

"Tomorrow it is."

Tomorrow.

* * *

 _Tomorrow_ turns into Friday after school.

Chloe had somehow convinced her in Chemistry, to come to Cynthia Rose's birthday party. Although it didn't take much convincing, because Beca will do anything for Chloe Beale.

They had been telling each other science jokes while trying not to mess up their experiment, and after Chloe had dropped the Potassium Chloride on the floor, resulting in a very huffy and pissed off Mr. Lawrence, throwing towels at Chloe and telling her to clean the mess up and stop mucking around, Chloe had blurted out, "come to CR's birthday party on Friday."

And Beca, confused as to what that had to do with Halogens, had agreed with a nod of her head, as she helped Chloe clean the mess up before they got into any more trouble.

"We can watch The Last Five Years before we go," Chloe had said, as she swept up the broken glass, "or if it's easier, we can watch it on Saturday."

She liked that; how they just made plans so easily. A mention of a movie, and Chloe was inviting Beca to her house, and an indication of being stuck on her homework, and Chloe was telling her she'll help her when they hang out at the weekend. It was nice, how easily they fell into the friendship routine.

Beca just hoped that Tom wasn't going to be at the party.

* * *

To say that Beca is socially awkward would be kind of huge understatement. Outside of Luke, Donald, Jesse, and Benji, she normally likes to keep to herself, and keep interaction with people her age – or just _people_ in general – to a bare minimum.

And then Chloe Beale came along, worming her way into the small circle that Beca deems her "trust space", and it's kind of giving Beca false hope that something as good as – maybe better than – Chloe Beale will eventually come along and bring her fully out of her shell.

But she knows that nothing better than Chloe exists in this universe or the next, so she has to deal with that. And Chloe hasn't brought her _fully_ out of her shell, but she's damn well close. And it's not that she minds Chloe worming her way in anyway, because Chloe is amazing.

That's the whole problem.

So while Beca doesn't move from her spot on CR's couch, already feeling kind of claustrophobic with all these high school kids here, dancing along to songs that Beca is only mildly familiar with, she wonders why the hell she agreed to come here in the first place. Chloe had ran off fifteen minutes ago, telling her that she's going to find Aubrey, and as much as she wants to tell Chloe to not leave her side, she figures that's kind of selfish of her.

Chloe isn't her babysitter.

And it's not _overly_ crowded, but the pounding from the music and the people shouting in the house is a bit too much, and she really wishes that Chloe would come back soon.

Luckily, the people who don't know her – people that she's never even seen around school before – seem to pick up on the 'don't talk to me' vibe that she seemed to have perfected around seventh grade, and they leave her alone, only a few people asking her what her name is.

A few of the Bellas come and go, and Stacie stays for a while longer, telling Beca about the time she lost her virginity when she was fourteen – how they had gotten into that discussion, Beca doesn't really know – but eventually she leaves, telling Beca that she should have a drink.

She figures _why not_ , because Chloe is clearly off doing God knows what ( _hopefully not with Tom_ , Beca thinks) and there's really no point in coming to a party that's supplying free alcohol and not taking advantage of it. So she gets herself a beer from one of the many coolers in the kitchen, and she's pleasantly surprised to see Chloe standing against the kitchen island talking to Emily with a yellow cup in her hand.

"Beca!" Chloe grins, holding her hand out for Beca, and she just offers a smile as Chloe pulls her in, wrapping her arms around her waist.

"What's this?" Beca asks, as Emily passes them both a shot glass each.

"Vodka." Chloe tells her.

"Straight?"

"Wow, we're getting _personal_."

"No, I mean is it straight vodka?"

"I don't know, the _label_ says SKYY." Chloe says with a grin, and Beca hears Emily chuckle beside her. Chloe's arm is still around her waist though, and it's making it kind of hard to notice anything else.

"Chloe."

"What?"

"Stop with the gay jokes."

"Hey," Chloe laughs. "Nobody said _anything_ about _gay_. It could be pansexual like me."

Beca's eyes widen suddenly, and she hopes to God that Chloe doesn't notice the blush on her cheeks, because they've never talked about stuff like that before. But Chloe is clearly a very open drunk person – more so than her usual self – and she doesn't seem to mind.

"I never… I never knew."

"Come on," Chloe says, "I play girls soccer."

"That's a harsh stereotype." Emily says, and Beca almost forgot she was there.

"It's only harsh if somebody else says it." Chloe says, before clinking her glass with Beca's, then Emily's, then throwing the shot back.

Beca just shakes her head, lifting the glass up to her lips and throwing it back just like Chloe had. And she tries to be smooth and play it off like she _totally_ takes shots all the time, but the liquid spreads out over her tongue and burns the back of her throat, and she's bending over, wheezing out coughs as Chloe and Emily laugh at her, patting her on the back.

"Not a shot girl?"

"It tastes like shit."

Chloe laughs, pulling her up so she's standing up straight, and she smiles at Beca.

"Dance with me, Becs," she says, and Beca's nodding, not even aware of what she's agreeing to.

And Beca's not drunk. She'd know if she was drunk and she knows that she's _not_ drunk.

At least, that's what she tells herself, when her mind seems to be going into overdrive when Chloe pulls her into Cynthia Rose's living room, where everybody is dancing to Ciara's 'Dance Like We're Making Love.'

And Chloe could not have picked a worse time to decide to dance.

Because even though Beca's not big on these high school parties, she's certainly aware of the fact that any songs that have the words 'making' and 'love' in them are bound to be slow songs that have only one right way to dance to.

And she should've known, after hours of unknowingly checking Chloe out, or not-so-accidentally peaking at an exposed bit of skin whenever Chloe stretches, or the fact that Chloe moves with such poise, that Chloe would be a good dancer.

And _boy_ , is she good.

And not only does she dance well, but she _sings_ well too.

Beca knows this because Chloe is singing along in her ear, as she stands behind Beca, hands on her hips as she helps them sway properly to the beat. And she can feel Chloe's front pressing into her back every now and again as the song progresses, and it's really not fair how Chloe can get away with this.

" _It's really late,_ " Chloe sings. " _You're getting close and the lights are off. Your body's in sync to the beat of my heart._ " She trails off, not singing the next line, because she seems to be distracted by something. By what, Beca's not really sure, but she's pressing against her before Beca even notices that she had pulled away slightly, and her mouth is next to her ear, singing along again.

" _Let's dance like we're making lo-o-o-o-o-o-ve._ " She rocks both of their hips every time the beat changes, every time Ciara sings another 'oh', and Chloe's voice never wavers. " _Ma-a-king lo-o-o-o-ve._ "

Beca's eyes are open now, and she looks around as best as she can, relieved to see that they're not catching anybody's attention in the room. Practically everyone is in the living room dancing along, so it's hard to move without having somebody knocking into Beca, but with Chloe behind her, her breath on her ear, it's not as bad as she would've thought.

" _I see a little faded, you wanna get crazy out on this floor._ " Her lips graze Beca's ear. " _I hope you sure this is what you want, cause once I'm turned on, you can't turn me off._ "

And she wishes she could carry on like this, but she knows how inappropriate it is. Especially when she finds herself pressing her back further into Chloe, because despite the alcohol in her brain telling her to just let it happen, she knows it's wrong.

She pulls away from Chloe, and she ignores the worried look on Chloe's face (and the glossy look in her eye) and she tells her that she needs to pee – probably not the best thing to say – and Chloe just nods with a small smile, before Beca takes off running towards the stairs.

It takes her a while to compose herself. Probably longer than necessary, because she hears at least three knocks on the door in the time she spends in the bathroom, and there's only so many times she can yell "occupied!" before people will start to think she's doing something else in there.

When she gets back downstairs, Chloe is waiting for her in the kitchen with a worried look on her face.

"You okay?" Chloe asks her, and she smiles a tight-lipped smile, nodding at her.

She's not okay though, and she has a feeling that Chloe knows that too.

* * *

She thinks about the party a lot over the summer.

And not in a perverse way.

When Beca came to terms with her bisexuality in eighth grade, it was kind of hard to get rid of all the things that she had been taught to feel.

Realizing that she was different was like realizing that she was a character in a story, and every other character (friends, family, people she passed on the street) were writing different parts of the story; prolonging it and making it better, or sometimes even worse. But then she realized that after reading other people's stories, she should really start to write her own, so she does. She writes and writes, and she realizes that the character she's playing in this story isn't the character she auditioned for, so she has to start writing the story from scratch, all over again, going in a completely different direction.

It's not ideal, but it needed to be done.

And now she has this wonderfully written story, where somehow Chloe Beale has become one of the supporting characters, almost kicking Beca out of her limelight.

She thinks about the fact that Chloe had managed to drag her to a party, got her to drink alcohol, _and_ dance.

Her dad would call that being irresponsible, but Beca just calls it impressive.

She thinks about it a lot; late at night when she's texting Luke about her music, or when she's Skyping with him and Donald, or mindlessly scrolling through Tumblr, or watching a movie with Jesse, or when she's dragged along to family dinners, and when she's with Chloe too. She thinks about it while she's making her mixes and while Chloe is drawing or painting or when they're outside and she's watching her kick the ball around with the girls.

She thinks about it because nobody has ever got her to loosen up like that before, and no girl has ever made her consider writing her story all over again.

She becomes closer with the Bellas over the summer, and they all rarely hang out in small groups. With Jesse, Bumper, and Benji tagging along, they're the group of fifteen kids at restaurants that everybody hates because they're so loud and obnoxious. They go to movies together – Beca is surprised to learn that Stacie doesn't like movies too, which they bond over effective immediately – and they all take over the back row, pigging out on popcorn and candy, and booing whenever something bad happens on the screen; cheering whenever something good happens.

"I'm really glad you're here," Chloe would tell her, the two of them sharing a large Coke while watching whatever new movie had come out that week.  
"Beca Mitchell, I'd be lost without you."  
"You're my favorite person in the world," she would swear.

She spends Thursdays with Chloe at the either Target or Kmart, moving items from aisle to aisle, and trying to come up with the worst combinations possible; putting lube next to toothpaste, or condoms next to the hot sauce. They get caught once, but with Chloe holding her hand as they both run out of the store, she feels like she can do anything.

One night Chloe texts her a string of messages.

 **[20:13PM] Chloe Beale3:** _I want m &m's_  
 **[20:13PM] Chloe Beale3:** _I want KitKat_  
 **[20:13PM] Chloe Beale3:** _I want reese's_  
 **[20:14PM] Chloe Beale3:** _and hershey's_  
 **[20:14PM] Chloe Beale3:** _and pizza_  
 **[20:14PM] Chloe Beale3:** _preferably Hawaiian_  
 **[20:14PM] Chloe Beale3:** _and ice cream_  
 **[20:14PM] Chloe Beale3:** _and possibly some cookies_  
 **[20:14PM] Chloe Beale3:** _maybe brownies_  
 **[20:15PM] Chloe Beale3:** _and a hug_  
 **[20:15PM] Chloe Beale3:** _and you_

She's laid in bed listening to her music, and Chloe's house – along with a late night minimart and a Dominos – is only a ten minute drive away.

 **[20:17PM] Beca Mitchell:** _you're a goof. We'll go to Target tomorrow and pig out_

 **[20:18PM] Chloe Beale3:** _sounds perfect_

She orders a Hawaiian pizza over the phone to pick up, and bribes Jesse for his car with a promise that she'll buy him Krispy Kreme next time they're in the city, and he throws her the keys as he tells her, "If you crash it, you have to give me your laptop and buy me a new car."

It doesn't take long for her to get the things on Chloe's list, and by the time she's done, she walks into Dominos to see that her pizza is already done. She ends up spending almost fifty dollars – most of her allowance – but the look on Chloe's face when Beca shows up on her doorstep is worth it, and Chloe herself is worth it.

Chloe kisses her on the corner of her mouth that night, whispering that she's a gift to this world, and she doesn't deserve her.

But Chloe is wrong. Beca doesn't deserve _her_.

They have sleepovers – something Beca never pictured herself doing – and they even go on a mini road trip with Jesse, Benji, and the Bellas for a few days, driving up from Atlanta to Sandy Springs and bounding their way through the recreation areas. They drive up to John's Creek, and hang out at the dog park and take up almost half of the Taco Bell's they visit. They camp under the stars for three nights, and Beca and Chloe always share a tent.

"I'm really glad that we met," Chloe would say, a small secret murmured between them as they all sit around the campfire.  
"I don't want the summer to be over."  
"You're the best thing in this world, Beca Mitchell," Chloe would insist.

Beca's always hated those kinds of groups but after realizing one night, laid next to Chloe in the tent, that she's part of the group now, it's hard to hate them.

They go to more parties over the summer, and they go to even more in their junior year, and even more and more, until it's like second nature to Beca. She doesn't always get drunk at them, and sometimes Chloe ends up running away to find one of the Bellas, or Tom, or whoever else she is friends with, but Beca enjoys herself regardless.

She adapts to another rhythm.

A rhythm that doesn't rely on solely on her being in love with Chloe Beale.

She _is_ , but she tries not to be.

"I wish I'd known you longer," Chloe would say as they lay face to face, close enough that Beca could smell the cinnamon flavored gum on Chloe's breath.  
"I knew we would be fast friends."  
"I've painted you a picture." She would whisper.

She pushes every thought of being in love with her best friend to the back of her mind, and she tells herself – whenever she thinks of Chloe that way – that it's _never_ going to happen.

Chloe has Tom, and Beca has her story, and that's okay.

She buries herself in her studies because junior year is kind of just as important as senior year, and she fills her schedule up with extra classes and helps Benji with the school musical again, and this time it's _Beauty and the Beast_ , and she's never really liked that movie, so she doesn't audition to be a dancer or an actor. She recruits herself as Benji's assistant manager again, and she plays the piano, and Chloe goes to see it every single day that it's on, for a week.

She tells herself that it's because Chloe is a good friend, and that's _all._

But when Chloe seeks her out after every show and hugs her tightly and kisses her on the cheek and says, "There's my lil nerdy superstar," Beca forgets that she isn't, in fact, _Chloe's_.

She just hopes she can be one day.

"I'm so proud of you," Chloe would tell her after the show, when it's just the two of them.  
"You're going to be the best music producer in the world."  
"I'll always be your biggest fan," She would promise.

In return, she attends every single one of Chloe's soccer games, and she's always cheering the loudest – even louder than Tom and Jesse – and she even paints her face in the Barden colors, just like everybody else, wearing the jersey that Chloe had given her in their sophomore year. When the matches finish, she's the one running into Chloe's arms, tackling her in a hug before anybody else can, and she's the one telling Chloe that she did awesome "for a girl", and she laughs – she _always_ laughs – when Chloe kisses her on the cheek, hugs her tighter and calls her a nerd, and tells her that she's glad she's here.

Tom just stands back and watches them, and she knows that he doesn't like her, but he puts up with her because he too, is in love with Chloe Beale, and he too, would do anything for her.

But Beca doesn't think about that, except from the odd days that she visits her getaway, and she ends up thinking about it _too much_ ; what it would be like if _she_ could kiss Chloe after every game and tell her that she loves her without the crippling fear of losing her, and let her know, in the confines of their bedrooms, just how much she means to her. How she's one of the only two main characters in Beca's story.

She shows Chloe her getaway one night, and she almost tells her, when the two of them are sat in silence holding hands, that she loves her. That she can't live without her. She almost does, but Chloe tells her that things with Tom aren't going as well as they used to be and she thinks he's cheating on her, and Beca tells her that if he is, she'll kill him. She doesn't tell Chloe that she loves her, because that would be selfish. Instead, she lets Chloe draw the forest on her right forearm, and a city on her left, and Chloe tells her how the trees and the buildings are total opposites but so similar. Just like the two of them.

They spend practically every waking moment together, and Jesse – in a surprising turn of events – doesn't tease Beca, for once. Probably because he knows that Beca is trying to get over Chloe, and maybe because he knows what it's like to love somebody who doesn't love him back.

Aubrey had started to date Stacie in the summer, and Beca had noticed how Jesse would listen to more Sam Smith songs than usual. She had joined him on one occasion, listening to The Civil Wars and Trading Yesterday, and the two of them ate ice cream and didn't say a word to each other for at least two hours. They promised to never talk about that night, ever, but Beca can admit that it did help.

Not _help_ per se, but it made her realize that she's not the only one going through this.

She knows that Jesse was aware of her sleepless nights over the course of her junior year, her crying herself to sleep on the rare nights that she hadn't seen Chloe, and her sneaking out of her bedroom window to get away from everything. She knows that her dad and Sheila have noticed her behavior lately. How she's not being a pain in the ass; she has too much of that pain in her heart. She knows they're worried about her.

But she tells herself that once she makes it through eleventh grade, and once she makes it through the summer, and once she makes it to graduation, everything will be fine.

* * *

It surprises Beca more than anything, when Chloe and Tom break up the summer before their senior year.

And she should've been more relieved, but Chloe had sworn off relationships, and it suddenly felt like whenever she looked at Chloe too long, she'd end up falling for her all over again, and she didn't want that. She'd spent months on end trying to get over Chloe, and she didn't need to be reminded of the pain she felt when Chloe would blow her off to hang out with her boyfriend.

"I know we have plans, but Tom wants me to meet his parents," Chloe would say to her.  
"Tom's going on vacation next week and I'm just trying to spend time with him before he goes."  
"We'll hang out tomorrow," she would assure her.

Always tomorrow.

And Beca didn't really understand, because despite Tom breaking up with her over text message (asshole), Chloe seemed fine. They spent the following summer before senior year hanging out almost every day, at least five times a week. Sometimes Chloe would climb up to her bedroom window again, like that one Valentine's Night in their sophomore year, and she'd tell Beca to get dressed and meet her in the bushes in the front yard.

It wasn't as romantic as Beca had imagined it to be, but Chloe still managed to make it special.

"Orion is my favorite constellation because he's strong like you," Chloe would murmur as she rested her head on Beca's shoulder.  
"There's so many things I want to say to you."  
"Beca Mitchell, I never want to lose you," she would say.

Chloe is fine, up until a week after the break up, and she breaks down right in front of Beca, heaving sobs as she ripped handfuls and handfuls of grass out of the soccer pitch. She cries until her voice is hoarse, and Beca holds her until they can't get any closer, and Chloe asks her, in a small, vulnerable voice, why Tom doesn't love her anymore.

"I love you," Beca tells her, stroking her hair and fighting back her own tears. "You know I love you."

"But not the way I want to be loved."

They take long drives up to the city and Beca buys Chloe art supplies, and sometimes Chloe stops in the middle of the street to sit down and paint, and people complain about them taking up so much room on the sidewalk but Beca is standing above her with that 'don't talk to us' look on her face, and they seem to walk away and leave them be. Chloe is like that. She doesn't care what people think of her. She doesn't care about people complaining about her sitting in the middle of the sidewalk because once she wants to paint, she'll paint as if her life depends on it.

They drive down to Grant Park, and Chloe insists that they go to the zoo because she hasn't been since she was little, and sometimes if they go on Sundays, they go to the farmers market and Chloe always ends up buying something for Beca, even if Beca insists that she doesn't need to. It's nice, having someone care for her the way Chloe does.

"What's up with that anyway?" Chloe had said to her one night, three weeks after the break-up. They both had a tub of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream each as they sat on the blanket under the stars on the soccer pitch, after just getting back from the park.

"What?"

"The whole 'love' thing. I mean, we're seniors now _technically_ ," she exclaimed it like she was telling her the best news in the world, waving her spoon around like she was in the middle of some inspirational speech. "We're _young_. We don't need a _relationship_ to be happy, yet it's some sort of universal _thing_ where people are brainwashed into thinking that we _have_ to be with someone. Like, people actually believe that. _We_ believe that. _We're_ the idiots who fall for it over and over again."

 _I'm the idiot who keeps falling for you over and over again,_ she thought to herself, as she stuffed her face with ice cream.

"Yeah," Beca had said. "Let's just not date anybody."

"Deal."

It's like when people say that parallel universes exist, and somewhere in them is another version of yourself. Maybe that other version of herself is loving Chloe and maybe that other version of herself is being loved back.

 _This_ version of herself is just hoping for some sort of happy ending to her story. One that includes Chloe, loving her or not loving her.

* * *

Their senior year starts with a bang.

Or more like a splash.

Literally.

Stacie hosts a small get together the day before school starts, and it quickly turns into a full-on house party, and at one point everybody jumps into the pool, thanks to Chloe Beale, yelling about the fact that they're all seniors now, and they're the Kings and Queens of the school; of the world.

That's the moment Beca realizes that this is the last year she's going to spend with these nerds until they all disperse and go their separate ways.

This is the last year she's going to spend with Chloe.

She had made a deal with her dad, after realizing that she wants to pursue music production. If she graduates high school and makes it through one year of college, he'll pay for her to move to L.A.

It was an easy deal. A no-brainer. But then it suddenly _isn't_.

It isn't easy when she tells Chloe that night, as the two of them are drying off from the pool, and Chloe tells her not to go.

"Chloe–"

"–Beca, you _can't_ go to L.A." Chloe tells her, as if she's _not_ telling her to just drop everything for her. As if she's not making this harder for Beca than it already is. "You can't leave me."

"I'm not leaving _you_."

"I don't want to lose you."

"I'm not leaving you," she repeats.

"It sure sounds like it."

"Chloe, you're drunk and cold, and we should get you home–"

"–We? Who's _we_?" It comes out much more aggressive than Chloe intended. Beca can tell because she looks shocked at herself, for spitting the words out with such spite, and she says, "I'm sorry, but… you can't just leave. You can't tell me you're leaving and expect me to be okay with it."

"I'm not leaving yet. I told you, I'm staying in Barden for another two years."

"That's not long enough," Chloe tells her, shaking her head, "that's not… it's not enough."

 _I'm never enough and I never will be_ , she wants to say, but she doesn't.

She calls a cab and takes Chloe home, and she insists that she can walk back home, but Chloe tells her to stay. It's whispered in between the two walls at the entrance of Chloe's house, and there's no sound other than both of their breathing, and Beca stays, after she feels Chloe's arms wrap around her.

Of course she stays.

* * *

Beca starts to write songs in her senior year.

It's never something she pictured herself doing, but it starts one night when Chloe has to attend a family dinner, and she can't meet Beca at the soccer field. Beca goes to the field anyway, and she sits down at their spot, and the words start coming to her before she even realizes.

The first song she writes is about Chloe.

 ** _"_** ** _I love it when you just don't care  
I love it when you dance like there's nobody there  
So when it gets hard, don't be afraid  
We don't care what them people say  
I love it when you don't take no  
I love it when you do what you want cause you just said so  
Let them all go home, we out late  
We don't care what them people say"_**

She had to carry on writing it when she got home, because it started to rain and she didn't want her journal to get ruined.

 ** _"_** ** _We don't have to be ordinary  
Make your best mistakes  
'Cause we don't have the time to be sorry  
So baby be the life of the party  
I'm telling you to take your shot it might be scary  
Hearts are gonna break  
'Cause we don't have the time to be sorry  
So baby be the life of the party"_**

She didn't finish it that night, because she figured that finishing it would make the fact that she's in love with her best friend real again. She didn't want to be that angsty teenager writing love songs about some girl, but here she is.

She writes more of the song every time Chloe has to be somewhere else that isn't with her.

 ** _"_** ** _Together we can just let go  
Pretending like there's no one else here that we know"_**

She writes more when she has a hangover after Aubrey's eighteenth birthday party.

 ** _"_** ** _Slow dance fall in love as the club track plays  
We don't care what them people say"_**

She writes more when Chloe tells her that she's going to pass on going to one of Fat Amy's parties, because she doesn't feel too well.

 ** _"_** ** _Come out tonight, come out tonight  
There's no one standing in your way  
Come out tonight, come out tonight  
We don't care what them people say"_**

She writes more when Chloe tells her that some kids told her that she'll never be a pro-soccer player, and her art will never be good enough to be put up in museums.

 ** _"_** ** _So don't let them keep you down  
Oh you know you can't give up  
'Cause we don't have the time to be sorry  
So baby be the life of the party"_**

And normally Chloe is fine with standing up for herself, but Beca had sought them out, and despite the fact that they were at least two heads taller than her, she had gotten her point across clearly; that if they so much as went near Chloe again, she wouldn't be afraid to break every bone in their body.

Of course, she'd _never_ do that (the sound of bones breaking is gross as fuck) but the sentiment was still nice, she thinks, because Chloe had kissed her on the cheek and said, "My hero!" with that grin that takes Beca's breath away, and everything was okay again.

She writes more songs about Chloe, until her journal is almost full, and she composes music to accompany them; spends hours thinking of which instruments to use, which chord progressions, and which notes will fit best in the background.

" ** _Come with me and I'll take you away if you'll let me,_** " she writes one afternoon, as she waits for Chloe on the soccer pitch. " ** _Stay with me and I'll cover your soul with my body. Give me your heart, and I'll give you my love. It's a work of art, when you shine like the sun._** "

She doesn't notice Chloe at first, creeping up behind her, but then she feels two hands on her shoulders, and she feels like her heart has exploded in her chest; out of surprise, out of fear, out of worry, out of relief.

"Whatcha writing there, Romeo?"

"Romeo? That's a new one."

"I mean, if you'd rather be Juliet then that's fine by me."

"I can't stand Shakespeare."

Chloe holds her hand up to her chest, offended. "Beca Mitchell, you know how to wound a woman."

"Chloe Beale, I think there are much better writers in the world than little Willy Shakes."

"He influenced the English language itself, if it wasn't for 'Willy Shakes', we wouldn't be standing here right now."

"We're sitting."

Chloe rolls her eyes, a trait picked up from Beca probably. "Whatever. What _are_ you writing anyway?"

Beca looks down at the book that she had slammed shut when she felt Chloe's hands on her shoulders, and she shakes her head, telling Chloe that it's nothing important as she takes her math book out of her bag.

"Ready to teach me about the wonders of mixing letters and numbers?"

Chloe laughs. "I have no idea why you even took AP Calculus, you _hate_ math."

"Why, because _you're_ in it of course."

Chloe smiles at that, telling Beca to open her damn book to the right page.

* * *

"We have an emergency," Chloe says as she sits down next to Beca under the tree, dropping her bottle of water next to her. "We haven't planned your birthday party."

"It's a bit late now."

Chloe sighs, handing over a blue gift bag.

"I want your birthday to be special though. You're eighteen."

"It _is_ special," Beca tells her, holding up her lunch tray. "It's nacho day in the cafeteria."

"Beca."

She rolls her eyes, placing her tray down next to her as she picks up the bag, opening it to see something wrapped in Minion wrapping paper.

"Minions? Seriously?"

"I know how much you love them."

"I _literally_ hate you."

She pulls the small gift out along with the green envelope, setting the gift on the ground as she opens the card.

 ** _Have a whaley good birthday_** , the card reads, with a picture of a whale on the front of it, and Beca laughs, shaking her head.

"Only you would pay money for a card like this," she says, and Chloe grins at her as she reaches over to steal Beca's apple from her tray, taking a bite out of it.

 ** _My Beca Mitchell_** , she reads in her head, knowing that Chloe is waiting in anticipation. **_I wanted to get you something super great and super unique and super beautiful for your birthday, but I don't fit into the envelope._** Beca laughs, looking at Chloe and rolling her eyes. **_Happy birthday, ya lil nerd. Love from, your Chloe Beale._**

"You're such an idiot." Beca says, putting the card back into the envelope to keep it safe, before picking up the gift. And she smiles once again at the Minion wrapping paper, and Chloe is waiting with a grin on her face, hands doing that thing where they tap excitedly on the grass.

"What could it be?" she asks with an open-mouthed grin, shaking the small box next to her ear, and she laughs when Chloe tells her to just _open it_.

It's a grey iPod Nano, and Beca wonders – for a second – why the hell Chloe would spend that much money on her. She had only bought Chloe some art supplies for her birthday, and she didn't spend half as much as Chloe has. Plus, she normally just keeps all of her songs on her phone, because she's never actually got around to buying one.

"Chloe–"

"–Turn it on," Chloe interrupts, practically bouncing in her seat.

So Beca does, and after a few seconds, when it finally comes on, she sees that there's one song on there, simply titled "For Beca", and she looks at Chloe to see her looking quite nervous. But Chloe just nods towards the iPod, and Beca picks up her headphones, plugs them in, and presses play.

It starts off with the beginning of _Cheerleader_ by OMI on top of _Just The Way You Are_ by Bruno Mars, and Beca finds herself smiling, even before the song starts.

 ** _"_** ** _When I need motivation  
My one solution is my queen  
'Cause she stays strong  
Yeah, yeah  
She is always in my corner  
Right there when I want her  
All these other girls are tempting  
But I'm empty when you're gone  
And they say"_**

And then it shifts into Just The Way You Are, and Beca grins as she keeps her eyes trained to the ground in front of her, focusing on giving her whole and undivided attention.

 ** _"_** ** _Yeah, I know, I know  
When I compliment her she won't believe me  
And it's so, it's so  
Sad to think that she don't see what I see"_**

The song shifts back again.

 ** _"_** ** _Do you need me? Do you think I'm pretty?  
Do I make you feel like cheating?  
And I'm like no, not really 'cause  
Oh, I think that I've found myself a cheerleader  
She is always right there when I need her  
Oh, I think that I've found myself a cheerleader  
She is always right there when I need her"_**

Her smile only seems to widen, as Chloe voice comes through the headphones, making her almost shiver at just how beautiful she sounds.

 ** _"_** ** _And when you smile  
The whole world stops and stares for a while  
'Cause, girl, you're amazing  
Just the way you are  
She is always right there when I need her  
She walks like a model  
She grants my wishes like a genie in a bottle  
Yeah, yeah  
'Cause I'm the wizard of love  
And I got the magic wand  
All these other girls are tempting  
But I'm empty when you're gone and they say"_**

She doesn't even realize that she's crying until Chloe pulls a tissue out of nowhere, and she's handing it to her with tears in her own eyes, and it's kind of ridiculous, really.

 ** _"_** ** _Oh you know, you know, you know  
I'd never ask you to change  
If perfect's what you're searching for  
Then just stay the same"_**

It's ridiculous how they're both just sat on the grass outside at lunch, crying together over something that nobody else really knows how much means to them.

 ** _"_** ** _Do you need me?  
Do you think I'm pretty?  
Do I make you feel like cheating?  
And I'm like no, not really 'cause  
Oh, I think that I've found myself a cheerleader  
She is always right there when I need her  
Oh, I think that I've found myself a cheerleader  
She is always right there when I need her"_**

And she should be embarrassed, crying in front of all these people, but none of them really seem to be looking at them.

She only sees Chloe anyway.

 ** _"_** ** _And when you smile  
The whole world stops and stares for a while  
'Cause, girl, you're amazing  
Just the way you are"_**

It's always been Chloe.

 ** _"_** ** _She gives me love and affection  
Baby, did I mention  
You're the only girl for me  
No, I don't need a next one  
Mama loves you too  
She thinks I made the right selection  
Now all that's left to do  
Is just for me to pop the question  
Oh, I think that I've found myself a cheerleader  
She is always right there when I need her  
Oh, I think that I've found myself a cheerleader  
She is always right there when I need her"_**

It always will be Chloe.

 ** _"_** ** _And when you smile  
The whole world stops and stares for a while  
'Cause, girl, you're amazing  
Just the way you are  
She is always right there when I need her"_**

She breathes out a nervous laugh, taking her headphones off of her head and putting them down on the floor in front of her.

"Do you like it?" Chloe asks, and she laughs, nodding her head and squeezing the tissue in her hand.

"How did you–?"

"–Endless, _endless_ research. You have no idea how long it took me to make that."

Her eyes widen. "You made it? By yourself?"

Chloe nods and smiles at her; the type of smile where the corners of her eyes scrunch together and make her look younger. The type of smile that Beca fell for two years ago.

"I don't understand how you make so many," Chloe says.

"Not gonna lie, I'm kind of jealous." Chloe laughs, biting her lip as she looks at Beca. "You're amazing, Beale."

And then Beca reaches out before she even realizes what she's doing, and she _really_ doesn't _know_ what she's doing. Probably making a fool out of herself. She stops her hand from reaching out before it gets too near to Chloe, and at the last minute she holds her palm up in front of her, and Chloe smiles.

She lifts her own hand up and slaps her palm to Beca's, their hands only touching for a fraction of a second before Beca pulls hers away.

* * *

"How's your girlfriend?" Jesse asks her that night, as she throws herself onto his bed.

They've grown closer over the course of their junior year and the summer that followed. So much so, that Beca's not even affected by his annoying habits any more – or she _is_ , but not as much as she used to be. And they're like the typical brother and sister, where they annoy the shit out of each other, and they always drive Warren and Sheila crazy, but Beca knows that whenever she needs someone to talk to, Jesse will always be there.

"She's not my girlfriend," she tells him.

The only place Beca calls Chloe her _girlfriend_ is in her head.

"If you say so," he says. He's playing on Assassin's Creed, his tongue sticking out as he concentrates on the screen.

Even if she isn't Chloe's _girlfriend_ , she's her _Beca_. That's good enough.

"I high-fived her, Jesse." Beca groans.

"What?" he asks, pausing the game.

"She made a mix for my birthday and gave me an iPod and I fucking high-fived her."

He looks at her for a moment, tilting his head like a dog, and she huffs as she looks up at the ceiling, until she hears him sigh.

"You're an idiot."

"I know."

"Do we need to have a chat?" Jesse asks her, unpausing the game. "About the birds and the bees?"

"Shut up."

* * *

She spends the next few months studying, sometimes with Chloe, sometimes without.

Mostly _with_ her, because Chloe tends to show up at her door, and Beca has no intention of introducing Chloe to her dad but it's kind of hard when she shows up unexpected with a bag full of books and candy. And her dad ends up making his meat loaf, that Chloe actually eats and praises, but Beca knows by the look in her eye that she hates it.

They study separately mostly, with Beca at her desk and Chloe laid on Beca's bed. Sometimes Chloe will get bored and start throwing things at Beca, or sometimes she hides sour patch kids under Beca's pillow and Beca has to fish them out that same night, knowing full well who had done it.

She listens to the mix that Chloe made her almost every day, up until she figures that listening to it too much will eventually get boring and she doesn't want to get bored of it. It deserves to be cherished, just like Chloe Beale herself. Instead, she only listens to it on Saturday mornings.

Chloe helps her with Calculus, and she helps Chloe with AP Chemistry, and they both test each other on the other subjects they take, making sure to have small breaks in between. Sometimes they watch a movie or listen to music, and sometimes they just lay together, Chloe's head on Beca's shoulder as they talk aimlessly.

It's up until the moment Chloe has a soccer game that Beca realizes that she's missed the past two. And Chloe is fine with that, she says, but she feels bad for missing them and she tells her that she'll definitely be there, cheering the loudest like she usually is.

She's on the pitch studying for her Chemistry final as the Bellas train before the game, when she feels the soccer ball tap her knee as it rolls past her.

"Becs!" Chloe shouts, waving her arms up in the air. All of the Bellas are too far away to be bothered to run for the ball, due to them training for a few hours already, so Beca stands up, putting her pen and her book down as she picks the soccer ball up.

She tries to aim it at Chloe, but when she drops the ball in front of her and kicks it – probably harder than necessary – and sees it flying towards Aubrey, she starts to rethink her decision to kick it instead of throwing it like she usually does.

Because everything seems to go in slow motion, and the ball is rushing towards Aubrey's face faster than she'd like, and then suddenly Aubrey is on the floor, with the Bellas all crowding around her.

"Fuck," she whispers, before she sets off in a sprint, pushing her way through the Bellas as she kneels down next to Stacie. "Fuck, oh my God," she holds a hand over her mouth. "Aubrey I'm so sorry–I didn't–I'm… Fuck."

"I'm gonna kill you, Mitchell," Aubrey says through a laugh, and Beca cringes as Aubrey moves her hand from her nose to see blood pouring out of it. She tries to sit up, but Stacie places a hand on her shoulder and sets her down again, telling Aubrey that she needs to lay down because she might have a concussion.

"Fuck me, I'm so sorry," she repeats, and then she hears Chloe telling all the Bellas – apart from Stacie – to stand back to give her some space, because Aubrey's eyes look like they're about to roll into the back of her head.

Beca looks at Chloe, shocked to see an angry look on her best friend's face as she holds three fingers in front of Aubrey's.

"Hey, Aubrey. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Your fingers a _loooong_ ," Aubrey says, laughing, and Beca sighs and closes her eyes, because of _course_ this would happen the day before a game.

"Bree, concentrate. How many fingers?"

"Is that a new ring?"

"How many fingers?"

"Six."

Chloe sighs, shaking her head.

"She's concussed."

"Chloe, I'm–"

Beca's interrupted by a glare from Chloe, and a muttered, "Not _now_ , Beca," before she tells Emily to go get the coach, and it feels like a sucker punch to the gut.

* * *

Beca's never really been good at sport.

What Beca is good at, is giving in to Chloe Beale.

But when Chloe asks her – after the Bellas all come out of the principal's office – if she'll play soccer with them tomorrow because the principal has threatened to cancel the game if they don't have eleven people, and they can't have that happen because it'll ruin their winning streak and they just really don't want to have to cancel, Beca almost says yes.

 _Almost_. Because Chloe is looking at her with those puppy dog eyes, and it's not really fair, if Beca's honest, that she can be so persuading without even having to say much.

"I can't _play_ ," Beca tells her as they get back to the pitch, and all the Bellas are standing around, some of them sitting down on the floor. "You _saw_ what happened, I can't even kick a ball in a straight line."

"You can play defense," Chloe says, and then before Beca can reply, she turns to Jessica and says, "Jess, you can be a striker, Beca will be defense–"

"–Um, _hello_ ," Beca waves her hand in front of Chloe's face. "I'm not playing."

"Bec, _please_. If you think about it, you kind of owe us."

"Yeah," Cynthia Rose says, arms crossed over her chest. "You almost killed one of our best players."

"Okay, I didn't almost _kill_ her. She's fine."

"But she can't play because _someone_ kicked a ball at her face and gave her a concussion."

Beca looks between all of the Bellas, each one of them looking at her with some kind of hope in her eyes, and she sighs when she looks at Chloe again.

"Please?"

" _Fine_."

* * *

It's hard to teach a person how to play soccer in one night.

Especially when that person is Beca Mitchell.

If she wasn't already busy enough, with her finals coming up and the music for the school's performance of _Next to Normal_ to take care of; she had to go and agree to play a game of soccer, just because Chloe Beale had flickered those eyelashes and given her that mind-numbing smile.

She should've known that this was going to happen.

 _'_ _This'_ being her and Chloe collapsing on the field after a grueling afternoon of training, or what Beca would call 'passing the ball back and forth so many times that she started to feel hypnotized by it'.

They spent at least eight hours straight, from three to eleven, trying to squeeze in as much training as possible, and now Beca feels like she's going to die.

It wasn't as bad as one would think, but there's only so many times that she can kick a ball in the same four directions, until it starts to feel like she's a broken record. And she _had_ kept stopping the ball with her hands whenever Chloe kicked it towards her, because "What the fuck else am I supposed to do when there's a ball flying towards me?! It's a reflex action!" so she's not surprised that it had lasted so long. And she keeps thinking about Aubrey, and if it's too late to bribe the coach and principal into letting Aubrey play instead, because there's no doubt in her mind that she's going to fuck this up for them all.

"I hate my life. I hate it."

"I'm quite proud of myself," Chloe says with a smile, throwing Beca's towel at her, followed by her bottle of water. "I managed to teach you almost everything I know."

"I still hate my life. Why did I agree to do this?" she opens her bottle of water and instead of drinking it, she pours it over her head, sighing as the cold liquid runs down her face and neck. "I can see stars. I feel like I'm gonna explode."

"You're fine," Chloe says, pushing her arm. "You're fine."

"I'm dying."

Chloe shakes her head, taking a big gulp of her own drink before laying back on the grass, looking up at the dark sky.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend?" Chloe asks her, and she frowns as she lays down next to Chloe, wondering why she suddenly brought that up.

"No, I…" she shakes her head. "I haven't."

"Ever had a boyfriend?"

"Once, in eighth grade." She says, wiping the sweat and water off of her face.

"Who?"

"Some dude called Calum."

"What was he like?"

She sighs and tells Chloe that he was pretty scary. He was really pale and had jet black hair that she's pretty sure he dyed himself, and he refused to hold her hand and go out with her during the daytime. He might've been from a family of vampires.

"Not your type?" Chloe asks, reaching down for Beca's hand, and Beca smiles as she looks up at the sky.

"Not my type."

"Who's your type?"

Beca shakes her head. "I don't… really have a type."

"Would you say I'm your type?"

She opens her mouth, and she's fairly certain she looks like a fish or something right now, but Chloe's thumb is stroking across her hand and it feels really nice – nicer than usual – and she doesn't really know what to say or do. She's always amazed by just how casual and collected Chloe can be, not afraid to ask Beca personal questions, and not afraid to share personal things about herself.

"I mean, you're, um…" Beca pauses for a second, trying to look for Andromeda, her favorite constellation that she can sometimes spot on a clear night. She can't find it though. "You're kind of everybody's type."

"Was Calum a good kisser?"

"We never kissed."

"Would you be grossed out if I kissed you?"

Her breath hitches, and she's fairly certain that Chloe is aware of the rising blush on her neck and cheeks, but she doesn't really know what to do. She daren't look at Chloe, but she _knows_ ; knows that Chloe is staring at her, waiting for her to look back.

She shakes her head, and she says, "You're being weird."

"Would you?" Chloe asks, suddenly sitting up.

"Nope. No, uh… definitely not."

"You don't sound so sure."

"I'm trying to."

Chloe smiles, squeezing Beca's hand. "Look at me."

"I don't want to."

"Why?"

"Because you're gonna do that thing where you ask me millions of questions with your eyes and I won't know the answer," Beca sighs. "I never know the answer."

 _And I am a huge fucking idiot_ , she thinks, as she feels Chloe let go of her hand, and tell her that she'll drive her home.

She can never keep her mouth shut.

* * *

Of course, the day that Beca is forced to play soccer, is the day that 1) it's raining, 2) they're facing the second best soccer team in Atlanta, and 3) she can't concentrate on anything because of Chloe ' _would you be grossed out if I kissed you_ ' Beale.

The words seem to be burning in her mind, scorching the back of her eyelids whenever she shuts her eyes. They have been for hours now; keeping her up until two in the morning and waking her up at seven, following her around until she's standing on the soccer pitch and the game is starting.

It's torture.

And it doesn't help that every time there's some sort of pause in the game, Chloe looks over at her and smiles, and makes Beca feel like she did last night all over again; scared and excited and hopeful.

But halfway in, and the Bellas are doing really well, surprisingly. She's managed to tackle both strikers at least eight times by the time the first half is over, and Chloe has already scored three goals. Beca can hear Jesse and Benji cheering in the stands – always louder than everybody else – and Benji has a foam finger and they're both wearing a Bellas jersey that Chloe had made for them, and after hearing the whistle blow signaling half-time, Beca's kind of glad that she's here.

Because the look on Chloe's face when Chloe approaches her, hugging her and telling her that she's really happy that she agreed to this, is enough to make all of Beca's insecurities about causing the team to lose to disappear.

It's weird, being the one out on the field instead of in the stands cheering for them all, but it's also nice. It's a nice change, mostly. She gets to connect with the Bellas over something they're all passionate about, and there's really only one thing that are on all of their minds.

 _Don't let the other team win_.

For Beca, there's two things. _Don't let the team win_ , and _Chloe Beale_.

Chloe is always on her mind.

In the second half, Chloe scores again, followed by two more goals by Jessica, and then suddenly the whistle signaling the end of the game is sounding, and Beca feels like she's going to collapse.

But she watches as all the Bellas rush over to Chloe, Stacie and Emily hoisting Chloe up by her legs as she holds her hands up in the air and fist-pumps, shouting "Bellas for life!"

She jogs over to them with a huge smile on her face, and they put Chloe down and suddenly they're picking Beca up, chanting "Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell!" over and over again. And she can't wipe the stupid grin off of her face if she tries, because Chloe is smiling up at her – and it's weird being this tall – but then she's telling the Bellas to put Beca down before she falls, and Beca is suddenly in Chloe's arms.

"Don't be grossed out, Beca Mitchell," Chloe says, and then she kisses her.

It kind of reminds Beca of the scene in Mission Impossible 2 where Tom Cruise throws the bomb and runs through all the sparks and ashes after it blows up, and then he jumps out of the building. Kissing Chloe Beale is like Mission Impossible 2.

Her eyes close on their own, and all the chanting dies down until it's just a dull hum in the back of her mind, and she kisses Chloe back and it's like fire.

While it's something she's been dreaming would happen for a long time now, she never really expected it would feel like this. It's slow, and Chloe's hands are warm and sweaty on her cheeks, and she want to pull her closer and closer. She wants Chloe to wrap her legs around her, or she wants to sit down on the floor just so Chloe can sit on her lap so she can kiss her some more; feel her body against her own because right now, she's standing in front of her and Beca's hands are placed awkwardly, one on her cheek and one on her waist, and it's not how she imagined her first kiss with Chloe Beale.

She carries on kissing her until she's out of breath.

She finds herself thinking about all of the events that led up to this. She thinks of the day Chloe messaged her, and the day they met, and the day she heard Chloe sing for the first time, and the day she showed her a mix on her computer, and the first time Chloe told her a secret, and the first time she hugged her, and the feeling of Chloe's hand in hers when she dragged her to Cynthia Rose's birthday party in sophomore year.

She remembers everything, as if it hasn't already been three years.

As if she won't be leaving soon.

When Chloe kisses her, it's like fire, because the longer Chloe touches her, the more it hurts.

And while she'd love to just stand here in front of the whole school and make out with Chloe for like, nine hours, her body is aching and it's so warm, especially with everybody surrounding them, and even though she loves the Bellas, they'll all be teasing them soon enough, and she thinks that taking this somewhere more private would be best for the both of them.

"You're a really good kisser," Chloe tells her when Beca pulls back.

"Uh… thank you?" she shakes her head. "I mean… you are too. You're great."

Just then, as Chloe is about to say something, she looks up and her face seems to fall slightly, and Beca turns around, her hands still around Chloe's waist.

Tom is standing at the other side of the soccer pitch.

"Are you trying to make him jealous or something?" Beca asks her, letting go of her and taking a step back.

"What? No," Chloe frowns. "Of course not. Bec, that's not what this is at all. That's not what _you_ are."

"What am I then?"

"A really good kisser."

"Chloe," she shakes her head.

"You're my Beca Mitchell," Chloe takes her hand again and leans in close to her. "Is that enough? For now?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it's enough. More than enough."

But it's not, and they both know that.

* * *

The team all disperse into the changing rooms afterwards, only a few of them teasing Beca and Chloe about finally "boning each other" – Stacie's words – and telling them that they're gonna have a celebration party at Flo's house tonight.

As Chloe goes to shower though, she stops when she doesn't feel Beca following her.

"You coming?" she asks, and Beca looks over at her, giving her a small smile.

"I'll meet you inside."

She spends about ten minutes kicking a soccer ball into the net before she drops to the ground, stretching her arms out and looking up at the sky.

 _Don't fuck it up_ , her brain keeps telling her, as she looks up at the sky.

She tries to count the stars just like Chloe Beale had that one anti-Valentine's night, but there's too many. Too many to count.

Just like her love for Chloe Beale; always too much.

When she moved to Barden three years ago, she never thought that she'd be here now. In love with a girl who might possibly love her back, being friends with a group that she never pictured herself in.

Although she figured out her sexuality before she started high school, she still has never been with a girl. Hell, she's only ever been with one boy, and that relationship lasted as long as a stick of gum. But Chloe Beale, if she thinks back to the three years they've spent together, is no different than a girlfriend. Chloe holds her hand and hugs her all the time, and she sneaks into her bedroom window at night and sometimes wakes Beca up or slips into bed with her because she can't sleep in her own bed. Chloe texts her pictures of red pandas and kittens if she knows Beca's in a bad mood, and she always texts her good morning and good night. Beca doesn't think Chloe has gone a day without texting her good morning and good night.

And the things Chloe says to her, whether they're compliments casually thrown about while they're doing homework, or secrets whispered into the small amount of air between them while lying in bed, facing each other with smiles big enough to let each other know that they're so much more than friends.

"I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for you," Chloe would tell her.  
"You're so beautiful when you're concentrating."  
"Beca Mitchell, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me," she would sigh.

 _Don't fuck it up_ , her brain keeps telling her.

"Becs!"

She lifts her head up at the sound, pushing herself up and patting the grass off of her butt as she watches Chloe jog towards her.

"What're you doing, you told me you'd meet me in the showers?" Despite the fact that Chloe didn't mean for it to sound dirty, she still sees the blush on her face when she shakes her head. "You alright?" she asks her.

And Beca nods, humming as she scratches the back of her neck. But the nod turns into a shake of her head, and then she's breathing out a sigh as she looks back up at the stars above them.

"Why did you kiss me?"

"I…" Chloe pauses, her eyebrows knitting together. "I don't know. I've wanted to for a long time."

"How long?"

"Like, two weeks?"

Beca nods, a part of her relieved that Chloe hasn't had to go what she's had to go through, months of pining over someone she'll never have. She'd never wish that kind of pain upon Chloe Beale.

"Did it… does it–did you… what did it mean?"

"What do you mean?"

"I wanted it to _mean_ something."

"What did you think it meant?"

"I…" she exhales heavily, "I don't _know_. I don't know."

"What usually happens when you're best friend kisses you?"

"I tell myself that it doesn't mean anything."

Chloe frowns. "Why would you tell yourself that?"

"Because there's no way you can feel something for me."

"You don't know that."

" _Do_ you? Feel something for me?"

"Beca–"

"–Please," she breathes out, and she feels that familiar tingling feeling in her nose when she's about to cry, and she can feel herself on the verge of tears but she doesn't care. "Please just tell me if you feel something for me."

"You're my Beca Mitchell," Chloe tells her, her shoulders dropping. "Of course I do."

Beca nods, and despite the fact that she should feel amazing now. Elated. Over-the-moon. All she feels is scared.

Chloe takes a step towards her.

"Beca, you're mine. You always have been," she takes another step towards her.

"So… so then–what does that _mean_? What are we?"

"I'm Chloe and you're my Beca." She takes a step forward again, until she's right in front of Beca, and she lifts her hands up and cups Beca's cheeks. "Please tell me that's enough."

"Okay."

"Tell me."

"I love you."

She can see Chloe visibly tense for a fraction of her second; sees the way her eyes widen slightly, and her lips part, and her breathing seems to speed up. But she keeps Beca's hands cupped in her face, and Beca is practically standing on her tiptoes, her hands gripping Chloe's wrists as she looks into Chloe's eyes.

"I love you too."

"No, I really do," Beca tells her. "I really, _really_ love you."

"I know."

And she kisses Beca again, and Beca seems to sink into it, smiling in a way that probably makes her look like an idiot, but she doesn't care.

She loves kissing Chloe.

Loves the way her hands feel so warm on her cheeks, and the way the pads of her thumbs stroke across the skin under her eyes, and the way her lips feel so soft and so lovely. Chloe Beale is just lovely, Beca concludes, as she feels herself slipping, falling and falling until Chloe catches her at the bottom.

Her story is starting to make sense again.

* * *

"Go to prom with me."

Beca frowns, turning to look at Chloe.

They're both laid on Chloe's bed watching The Hannah Montana Movie – Chloe's choice – before they have to set off to Flo's party. Chloe's parents have gone away for the weekend for their anniversary, Chloe had told her, and weren't set to come back until Monday, which is why Beca's not really worried about the fact that they're both cuddled up way closer than they normally are.

And even though prom isn't too far away, the thought of them going together hadn't even crossed Beca's mind.

"Prom? Really?" she asks, her fingers absentmindedly stroking the hairs on the back of Chloe's neck.

"Yes," Chloe says, and then she scrunches her face up and shrugs her shoulders and says, "stop, that tickles," and Beca smiles.

"I've managed to dodge all three homecomings, can't I dodge prom too?"

"Barden's homecomings are crap, but their proms are awesome. Come on."

"But they're so pointless."

Her hand starts to tickle Chloe's neck again.

"They're not," Chloe says, shrugging, "stop tickling me. Please go with me. I want to slow dance with you."

"We can slow dance right now."

"I mean at prom, Bec," she stops as Beca suddenly stands up, pulling her up with her, "what are you doing? Beca, no–" she laughs, "–stop it, I'm being serious."

"So am I. May I have this dance?" Beca curtseys and holds her hand out, and Chloe smiles, shaking her head.

"You're the worst."

"Come on, dance with me," she grabs Chloe's hand and pulls her closer, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Dance with me, Chloe Beale."

"We have no music."

Beca tears her eyes away from Chloe's face, looking on Chloe's bed for her phone. She spots it peeking out from under the cover, and she picks it up, unlocking it and looking for a song. "Now we do," she says, as the beginning notes of Chloe's _Cheerleader_ and _Just The Way You Are_ mashup plays.

"We can't slow dance to _this_."

"Who said? Come on, dance with me Beale."

When Chloe throws her head back and wraps her arms around her, there's no real guarantee that this'll work. When Chloe takes Beca's hand in hers, there's no guarantee that they'll fit together perfectly, and there's no guarantee that the whole thing won't feel awkward and unrehearsed, and there's no guarantee that their steps will match.

But they do.

Beca watches as Chloe closes her eyes, and then she's resting their foreheads together, and she can feel her breath on her upper lip. She smells like the Reese's pieces they were eating earlier, and there's a small hint of lemonade on her breath too.

She closes her eyes as well, and she breathes in.

"Please come to prom with me," Chloe whispers.

"Okay."

She's pretty sure she'll do anything for Chloe Beale.

* * *

They don't go to the party.

Chloe texts Flo and tells her that Beca's fallen sick, and while Beca knows that Chloe hates lying to her friends, she's kind of glad. There's only one place that Beca wants to be right now, and that _doesn't_ involve being around tons of drunk seniors.

"C'mere," Chloe says, after Beca comes out of the bathroom, and Beca smiles as she hops onto the bed, standing on her knees. And Chloe joins her, reaching up to cup Beca's face in her hands, and Beca can get used to this, she thinks to herself. Feeling Chloe so close to her, looking at her like there's nobody else in the world that can make her feel the way Beca does.

"We make quite the pair, don't we?" Chloe asks her, fingers tapping a beat on Beca's neck that she's not familiar with.

She thinks her heartbeat syncs up with Chloe's fingers.

"We certainly do."

"Will you be grossed out if I kissed you?"

Beca laughs, biting her lip as she shakes her head.

And it's like the first time all over again. Only this time, they're both kneeling on Chloe's bed, with Beca's phone still playing as background music, and even though the song that's on isn't quite what Beca would deem a perfect song to make out with your girlfriend to, it's still nice.

And Chloe kisses her like she's hoping to get rid of every bad thought Beca has ever had, and it works.

Of course it works.

"I love kissing you," Chloe whispers, and their teeth click awkwardly as Beca pushes forward, "slow down."

"Sorry," Beca breathes out a laugh, her grip on Chloe's elbows loosening slightly, and Chloe smiles at her, hands still cupping her face.

"We've got all night." She whispers, placing a small kiss on Beca's bottom lip, and Beca sighs.

"You mean forever, right?" she asks, forehead resting against Chloe's again.

"I sure hope so."

They find themselves kissing for much longer than they expected, Chloe sat against the headboard and Beca sat in her lap, her arms draped over Chloe's shoulders as Chloe's thumbs tap a beat on her hips.

It's not until Beca feels Chloe's fingers slip under her shirt, making her gasp due to the coldness of her hands, that Beca realizes what they're _doing_.

And she wants it. She wants it more than anything.

It's slowly killing her.

"Can I take your shirt off?" Chloe asks her, and Beca nods, breaking her lips away from Chloe's. The shirt is thrown across the room in a matter of seconds, and they're back to kissing, and Beca's pretty sure that she's never felt like this ever in her life.

Sure, there's been times when all she's wanted to do is grab Chloe and kiss her, the urge becoming too much for her to handle, but she's never felt like _this_.

"Just…" she breathes out a sigh against Chloe's lips, "can I just–I just need to–"

"–what's wrong? Do you want to stop?"

Chloe is looking at her with so much love that Beca doesn't know what to do with it.

"No, I just…" She stops, dropping her head onto Chloe's shoulder. "I just need to catch my breath."

When she does, she dives straight into kissing Chloe again, and Chloe has to remind her a few times, that there's no rush.

Beca's hands, surprisingly, are the most adventurous out of the two of them. She cups Chloe's face, and she strokes a hand down her neck, until both hands are resting on her shoulders, thumbs stroking Chloe's collarbone. Beca's shirt is still off, and she feels kind of awkward being the only one without it on, but Chloe is tilting her head into the kiss, and she's sighing in that way that makes Beca think that Chloe is happy.

She knows that's she's happy.

She's happy too.

She smiles at the thought; the thought of finally being happy, and she feels like her heart is stuttering when Chloe murmurs, "You can take my shirt of too, if you want," into her mouth.

She pulls back suddenly, smiling when Chloe's mouth follows her, eyes still closed. When she opens them, they're big and dilated, but despite that, they're still that piercing blue color that reminds Beca of the color of the sky on Chloe's painting that she had done for her in sophomore year.

Her hands slip down Chloe's chest from her shoulders, and she unbuttons the top button, smiling when she feels Chloe look up at her. She unbuttons another, and then another, until she slowly opens Chloe's shirt and slides it off of her shoulders.

"That was smoother than I thought," Chloe tells her, grinning. "I thought you'd have been much more awkward and fumbly."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

So she does.

Chloe hugs her tighter, and the feeling of their skin touching makes Beca feels like she's on fire, but she loves it. She loves it, and she loves Chloe, and she loves everything about this moment.

Chloe's kisses are insistent and so honest and loving and just so _good_ that all Beca can do is melt into them, giving her whole self over to them. To Chloe.

Her hands are cradling Chloe's face, her finger tips stroking over Chloe's jaw, and it feels like she's going to explode if neither of them touch each other soon.

When she feels Chloe's tongue on her teeth, she can't stop the moan that's breathed out into her mouth, can't stop the way her hips move forward of their own accord, or the way her stomach clenches as Chloe's hands grip her hips.

She feels stripped completely bare already, and they haven't even got rid of their pants yet.

She feels secure.

Beca kisses her slowly. She takes her time, and she kisses her until she forgets where they are. Kisses her with delight; so curious and inquisitive, as if she's searching for something amazing that she knows is not there. Because she's already found it, and it's right here underneath her, kissing her back like she's forgotten any other mouth that she's ever kissed.

She laughs into her mouth and inhales her scent, and she kisses Chloe until she feels her moan, as her hands stroke up and down her sides.

"That tickles," she breathes out, her eyebrows knitted together as she concentrates on making this the best kiss that Chloe has ever had; concentrates on making this a night that she'll never forget.

Chloe just pulls her closer at the waist, and she takes her time and kisses her until Beca can't feel her brain working anymore.

Chloe flips them over so she's straddling Beca, and she leans down and kisses her again, as Beca's hands find Chloe's waist, pulling her closer until their stomachs press together, and she laughs when Chloe bites her lip.

"What?" Chloe asks, pulling back. "What are you laughing at?"

"What you said earlier," Beca says. "We certainly are a fine pair."

Chloe grins, and kisses her again.

"You're my Beca and I'm your Chloe. We've always been a fine pair."

"I can't," Beca breathes out, as Chloe kisses her way down her neck. "I can't believe we're doing this."

"Enough talking," Chloe whispers against her skin, and Beca obliges, hands coming up to hold the back of Chloe's head to pull her closer.

When Chloe pulls back, they're both breathless.

"It's my turn to catch my breath," Chloe says with a small laugh.

Beca examines her, like a puzzle that she can't figure out.

And one side of Chloe's mouth quirks up in an expression that's not quite relaxed enough to call a smile, but it's _something_.

"You're so beautiful."

Beca recognizes it as her _I'm in love_ smile.

She flips Chloe over, hoping to carry on with their whatever it is that they're doing, but she miscalculates just how much room there is, and her leg hangs off of the bed too much, and then she's falling, flipping onto her back on the floor, and hitting the back of her head on the cabinet beside Chloe's bed.

"Jesus, Bec, are you okay?!"

"I fell," she says, as Chloe kneels down next to her.

And then Chloe says, "I think I'm falling too," and Beca closes her eyes.

What exactly do you say when Chloe Beale tells you she's falling for you?

 _Nothing_ , is the answer that Beca Mitchell chooses to go with.

Instead, she lets Chloe pull her up, and Chloe is telling her, "Beca Mitchell, I'm falling in love with you," as they hug each other, and she presses a tender kiss on Chloe's chest, above her heart, and she smiles. The back of her head should be hurting, but Chloe is in love with her, and nothing in the world can hurt her right now.

They strip each other of their clothing one by one – Chloe stopping, of course, to make fun of Beca's Spiderman underwear, and Beca arguing that she was _not_ expecting _this_ to happen tonight – until they fall together onto the bed, just as a new song starts.

Chloe kisses her again, until everything feels like it's silent, and there's nothing else in the world except the two of them.

That is, until she realizes what song is on.

 ** _"_** ** _Baby, can you hear me?  
When I'm crying out for you  
I'm scared oh, so scared  
But when you're near me  
I feel like I'm standing with an army  
Of men armed with weapons, hey"_**

Her brow furrows, and she sits up from where she's laying on top of Chloe, and she looks around for her phone.

"Beca, what's wrong?"

"I gotta–I can't…"

"What?" she asks, guiding Beca's face back to look at her. "What is it?"

"I just," she clears her throat, "I can't listen to Miley Cyrus while we're having sex. We were literally watching Hannah Montana earlier–it's not _right_."

"Oh, come on!"

"No, it's _weird_!"

And then Chloe is flipping them over, much more smoother than Beca had, and neither of them fall off of the bed, but Beca thinks she falls and falls and falls, when Chloe starts singing.

" _I love lying next to you, I could do this for eternity,_ " Chloe sings, sliding her hands up Beca's sides, and Beca squirms, telling her that it tickles. Chloe doesn't listen. " _You and me - we're meant to be, in holy matrimony. God knew exactly what he was doing when he led me to you._ "

" _No_ , I hate you."

" _When you say you love me,_ " she carries on, her hips involuntarily grinding down into Beca. And Beca's laying down now, so Chloe has a better advantage of keeping her still, and she grinds down again. " _Know I love you more. And when you say you need me, know I need you more. Girl, I adore you._ "

She runs her hands up Beca's arms, walking her fingers over her shoulders before they're cupping her cheeks again, and she leans down, pressing their lips together softly.

"I love you," she whispers into Beca's mouth, and Beca forgets about the song entirely, when she feels Chloe's fingers trailing down her stomach.

* * *

Beca's never really been sure what love is, but now she knows.

Love is sitting on the soccer field, trying her hardest to concentrate on the homework in front of her rather than the girl singing along to her mixes. Love is summer's spent driving to places Beca's never heard of, sleeping under the stars and falling asleep to Chloe's breathing. Love is lemonade-tainted kisses in Chloe's bedroom, unaware of everything else in the world other than each other, and only each other.

Love is the morning after their first night together, laying with each other and just _existing_ , and telling each other that they love each other; telling each other, "You're my Beca Mitchell", and "You're my Chloe Beale", as their bodies press against each other, with hushed whispers about how much they want each other; how much they _need_ each other. Love is just _being_ with each other.

Love is when Beca's father asks her if she's applied for college yet a few weeks later, and she tells him _yes_ , she's applied to the same college as Chloe, as she texts Chloe about how she did on her Chem final, and Chloe texts her telling her that she's proud of her, and that she's picked her dress out for prom.

Love is when they leave prom early because they can't stand waiting any longer; can't stand not being able to feel each other and hold each other and tell the other that they're theirs, wholly and completely.

* * *

Beca doesn't really know how she found herself here.

Well, no she _does_ , actually. She knows that she's only here because of the girl standing next to her in the middle of the Barden University activities fair, holding her hand as she looks around for clubs to join, and smiling as if everything is good in the world.

When Chloe drags her to a stall that reads 'Acapella singers wanted' Beca comes to the conclusion that love is just simply Chloe Beale, and that will always be more than enough.

And maybe her story isn't complete yet, but she knows damn well that it's Chloe who will always be the main character, even in parallel universes, where they're loving each other and loving each other and loving each other. Chloe is always the main character.


End file.
